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ELEMENTS OF THE 
THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



'hj2)<:^o 



ELEMENTS 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF 



COOKERY 



A TEXT-BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE FOR 
USE IN SCHOOLS 



BY 



MARY E. WILLIAMS 

SUPERVISOR OF COOKERY IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF THE 

BOROUGHS OF MANHATTAN AND THE BRONX 

NEW YORK CITY 

AND 

KATHARINE ROLSTON FISHER 

FORMERLY TEACHER OF COOKERY IN THESE SCHOOLS 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 
1901 



All rights reserved 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRUSS, 

Two Co-Its RiCClVED 

MAK. 5 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASS (XxXc. No. 

COPY B. 



^t 



Copyright, 1901, 
Bt the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Nartsaoli ^ress 

J. S. Gushing k. Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Masi. U.S.A. 



PLATE I. 




Breakfast Table set for Four Persons. 




The Invalid's Tray, 



PREFACE 

This text-book has been prepared at the earnest 
request of the teachers of cookery in the public schools 
of New York City, and in response to the many letters 
that have come to the supervisor from all parts of the 
co,untry asking for information about the instruction 
given in this branch of household science. 

American text-books for beginners in cookery are 
few. We believe that " The Elements of the Theory 
and Practice of Cookery " is the first book of this 
order to combine the features of a working guide for 
the kitchen laboratory with those of a hand-book for 
study and reference. 

We have reason to feel, therefore, that in offering 
it for the use of young students we are supplying a 
want. This book aims to supplement the instruction 
of the teacher, and to aid in unifying the work of 
classes and schools. It is planned to save time and 
labor for teacher and pupils, and, incidentally, to in- 
sure correctness in language and content by furnishing 
recipes and other matter that have ordinarily to be 
copied or written from dictation. 



vi PREFACE 

All who arB working to improve the home, whether 
along the line of home economics, household science, 
temperance, or in other ways, recognize that the hope 
of this improvement depends in great measure upon 
the better preparation of home-makers for their duties. 
The modern school of domestic science holds that an 
essential part of this preparation is instruction in the 
principles of science which underlie the proper perform- 
ance of household labor, and in training that will en- 
able the student to apply these principles. The day is 
past for the study of any science as an accomplishment. 
The schoolboy has long known that chemistry w^ould 
be useful to him should he become a manufacturer, an 
engineer, or a physician. The schoolgirl is now being 
led to see as clearly its use to her in the business of 
housekeeping. 

Keeping in view this idea of the function of the 
school-kitchen, we have closely interwoven theory and 
practice in this text-book, as they should be inter- 
woven in actual experience. The presentation of these 
two aspects of the subject in their naturally close rela- 
tion is the surest means of proving to those who doubt 
the wisdom of teaching cookery, except as an art, that 
even the theoretical side of domestic science is of prac- 
tical value. It should operate also to dispel the preju- 
dice of those other persons — if any such there still 



PREFACE vii 

be — who hesitate to approve the introduction of cook- 
ery into public schools for fear of countenancing the 
teaching of a trade. 

We send forth our book in the hope that it may 
help, at least a little, to draw into closer union teachers 
and students of household science, home-makers, and 
all who are interested in the welfare of American 
homes. 

We desire to thank for the contribution of valuable 
suggestions, information, material, or all of these. Pro- 
fessor Robert W. Hall, of the New York University, 
Dr. H. W. Wiley and Dr. A. C. True, of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, Mr. Jonathan D. 
Hyatt, Principal of Public School 85, New York City, 
and, particularly, the teachers of cookery in the New 
York public schools. 



J 



NOTES TO TEACHERS 

The plan of this text-book does not assume the 
employment of any one particular method of teaching 
cookery. The book can be used equally well whether 
the pupils work individually or in groups, whether 
all at one time or in turn. 

Recipes making quantities suitable for a small family 
are given, as being the most practicable from all points 
of view. The individual recipe is not adapted to home 
use, nor is it so easy to multiply it as it is to divide 
the ordinary recipe to make the latter meet the require- 
ments of individual practice. 

The subject-matter in this book can be covered in 
three terms (one and a half school years) by classes 
of girls in the sixth and seventh or seventh and eighth 
years of school, one two-hour lesson being given each 
week. 

The chapter topics are taken up in the order that 
experience has proven to be for most classes the most 
natural and convenient one. The progression has been 
carefully worked out, as a glance at the table of con- 



X NOTES TO TEACHERS 

tents will show ; and, while the numerous cross-refer- 
ences make it possible to depart occasionally from this 
order, it is believed that to obtain the best results it 
should be. adhered to in the main. Certain portions 
of the text are printed solid, e.g. Chapter I, Section 2, 
Paragraphs 25-31, and Section 3 of Chapter VI, to 
indicate that they may, at the discretion of the teacher, 
be left until later in the course, without interfering 
with the continuity of the work. 

On the other hand, the sections of a chapter are not 
necessarily to be taken up in the order in which they 
stand. In many cases, subject-matter from different 
sections of the same chapter may properly be presented 
in one lesson. For example. Sections 2 and 3 of Chap- 
ter II would naturally be taken up together. 

The subject of cleaning is treated in considerable 
detail (Chapter I, Section 4), both because of its im- 
portance as a part of a course in household science, and 
in order to facilitate the keeping of the school kitchen 
and its equipment in proper condition. Each pupil 
should be thoroughly familiar with this section, so that 
when called on to serve as housekeeper she should 
know how to perform her duties, and where to turn 
in the text-book to refresh her memory with regard to 
them. 

With the exception of this section on Cleanliness 



NOTES TO TEACHERS xi 

and Cleaning, no part of the book is intended to be 
studied at home before being taken up in class. Sec- 
tions 5 and 6 of Chapter I, both sections of Chapter V, 
and Section 4 of Chapter VI are designed to be used 
chiefly for reference. 

Directions for performing experiments and for mak- 
ing tests and " studies " are explicit, in order that each 
pupil may carry them out individually, — at school, if 
conditions permit, if not, then at home. It is assumed 
that experiments and tests referred to in the text, but 
for which directions are not given (^e.g. the decompo- 
sition of water by sodium, p. 30, and testing for proteid 
with nitric acid, p. 87), will be performed by the 
teacher before the class. 

A microscope is a desirable part of the equipment 
of a school kitchen, but if one is not available, draw- 
ings or charts showing the appearance of common 
foods and foodstuffs under the microscope may answer 
instead of an exhibition of the specimen itself under 
the microscope. 

In taking up a new topic, this book, as a rule, gives 
opportunity for some practice work before presenting 
any theory. Principles are taught in connection with 
their application, and the classification of foods and 
general statements about them are deferred until some 
practical acquaintance has been gained with typical 



xii NOTES TO TEACHERS 

foods and their chief constituents. It will be observed 
that the recipes in the section on Diet for the Sick 
(Section 2 of Chapter XI) are so classified and ar- 
ranged that this section forms a review of the different 
classes of foods in the same order in which they are 
taken up in the preceding chapters. 

Although beverages are grouped by themselves, they 
are treated independently of each other and of other 
topics, in order that they may be taken up separately 
whenever convenient. A lesson on tea may be given 
in connection with the study of water, tea-making thus 
forming the first practice work of the course. Instruc- 
tion in the preparation of cocoa and chocolate can be 
given to better advantage after milk has been studied. 

Opportunity is offered, especially by means of the* 
experiments, " studies," and suggestions for reading 
and home work, for correlation with history, drawing, 
and the natural sciences. It is desirable that every 
teacher of household science should make the most of 
these opportunities, and should secure the cooperation 
of principal and grade-teachers in correlating, not these 
branches only, but English and mathematics as well, 
with the work of the school kitchen. 



LIST OF PUBLICATIONS REFERRED TO IN 
SUGGESTIONS TO PUPILS CONCERNING 
SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Boston School-kitchen Text-book. Mrs. Mary J. Lincoln. Little, 
Brown and Co. Boston. 

Boys and Girls in Biology. Sarah Hackett Stevenson. D. Apple- 
ton and Co. New York. 

Bulfinch's Mythology. Revised by Rev. E. E. Hale. Lee and 
Shepard. Boston. 

Century Cook-book, The. Mary Ronald. The Century Co. New 
York. 

Chemistry in Daily Life. Dr. Lassar-Cohn. Lippincott and Co. 
Philadelphia. 

Chocolate Plant, The. Walter Baker and Co. Dorchester, Mass. 

Coal and the Coal-mines. Homer D. Green. Houghton, Mifflin 
and Co. Boston. 

Domestic Science in Grammar Grades. A reader. L. L. W. Wil- 
son. The Macmillan Co. New York. 

Dora's Housekeeping. E. S. Kirkland. A. C. McClurg and Co. 
Chicago. 

Drinking-water and Ice Supplies. T. Mitchell Prudden, M.D. 
G. P. Putnam's Sons. New York. 

Dust and its Dangers. T. Mitchell Prudden, M.D. G. P. Putnam's 
Sons. New York. 

Early Chapters in Science. Mrs. W. Audry. John Murray. Lon- 
don. 

Fairyland of Science. Arabella Buckley. D. Appleton and Co. 
New York. 

Food Products of the World. Dr. Mary E. Green. The Hotel 
World. Chicago. 

xiii 



xiv SUPPLEMENTARY READING 

Foods and Beverages (Information Reader No. 1). E. A. Beal, 
M.D. Boston School Supply Co. 

Hiawatha. Henry W. Longfellow. 

Home Economics. Maria Parloa. The Century Co. New York. 

Story of the Bacteria, The. T. Mitchell Prudden, M.D. G. P. 
Putnam's Sons. New York. 

Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. O. T. Mason. D. Appleton 
and Co. New York. 

American Kitchen Magazine. Home Science Publishing Co. 
Boston. 

Chautauquan. Chautauqua Assembly. Cleveland, O. 

Harper's Weekly. Harper and Bros. New York. 

Nation, The. Evening Post Publishing Co. New York. 

Penny Magazine, The. London. 

Scribner's Magazine. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. 

Farmers' Bulletins. Nos. 42, 57, and 112. Sent free on applica- 
tion to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 



OTHER BOOKS - SUITABLE FOR READING IN CON- 
NECTION WITH "THE THEORY AND PRACTICE 
OF COOKERY." 

What to Eat and How to Serve It. Mrs. C. T. Herrick. Harper 
and Bros. New York. 1891. 

Cookery for Beginners. Mrs. M. V. Terhune (Marion Harland). 
D. Lothrop and Co. Boston. 1884. 

Text-book of Domestic Economy. F. T. Paul. Longmans, Green 
and Co. New York. 1894. (Good chapters on fuel, drain- 
ing, and water supply.) 

History of a Mouthful of Bread. Jean Mace. Harper and Bros. 
New York. 

Servants of the Stomach. Jean Mace. Harper and Bros. New 
York. 



SUPPLEMENTARY READING xv 



COOKERY BOOKS 

Art of Cookery, The. Mrs. E. P. Ewing. Flood and Vincent. 

Meadville, Pa. 1896. 
Boston Cook-book. Mrs. Mary J. Lincoln. 1899. 
Boston Cooking-school Cook-book, The. Fannie M. Farmei. 

1896. 
Hand-book of Livalid Cookery. Mary A. Boland. The Century 

Co. New York. 1893. 
Philadelphia Cook-book, The. Mrs. S. T. Rorer. 1886. 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

Homes and Home-making ....••••! 



CHAPTER I 
Preparatory Lessons 

SECT. 

1. Air in its relation to life and to fire 6 

2. The kitchen fire — Fuels 11 

3. Water 23 

4. Cleanliness and cleaning 31 

6. Matter : Its nature and changes 49 

6. Definitions, tables, rules 62 

CHAPTER II 
Fuel Foods : Some Starchy Plants 

1. The potato 59 

2. Starch 68 

3. Cereals ; Simple cereal foods 73 

4. Wheat, the king of cereals 80 

CHAPTER III 
TissuE-BUiLDiNG FooDS : Eggs and Milk 

1. Eggs ; Albumin ,83 

2. Milk and other dairy products 92 



xviii CONTENTS 



CHAPTER IV 

Bread 

sect. page i 

1. Quick breads — Bcaking-powders 102 

2. Flour llo 

3. Macaroni and other flour pastes 118 

4. Yeast bread — Yeast 122 

CHAPTER V 
Food in its Relation to Life 

1. Bodystuffs and foodstuffs 136 

2. Diet 141 

CHAPTER VI 
Tissue-building Foods : The Flesh of Animals 

1. Meat : Its structure, composition, and cooking . . . 144 i 

2. Meat : Cuts, marketing and food value 172 ' 

3. Poultry and game 192 j 

4. A lesson in digestion, illustrated by the digestive organs of a i 

fowl 195 I 

6. Fish and shell-fish 200 

CHAPTER VII 
Fuel Foods: Fat from Animals and Oil from Plants 

1. Fats and oils : What they are and what they are good for . 212 

2. Cooking in fat : Frying and saut^ing 216 

CHAPTER VIII 
Acid and Salt Supplying Foods: Fruits and Vegetables 

1. Fruits 226 

2. Vegetables 235 

3. Cream -of-vegetable soups ....... 248 

4. Salads , , « , « . 252 



CONTENTS xix 



CHAPTER IX 

Sugar and Sweets 

sect. page 

1. Sugar — Candies 259 

2. Cakes and desserts 264 

8. Ice-cream and water-ices 276 



CHAPTER X 
The Preservation of Food 

1. The spoiling of food : Wiiat bacteria have to do with it . . 280 

2. Canning and jelly-making 284 

CHAPTER XI 

Special Diets 

1. Diet for babies — Special preparations of milk . . , 289 

2. Diet for the sick 296 

CHAPTER XII 
Beverages : Tea, Coffee, Cocoa 

1. Tea. 308 

2. Coffee 311 

3. Cocoa and chocolate 314 



Appendix A. Table showing composition of American food 

materials 319 

Appendix B. Table showing quantity of foodstuffs obtained in 

different food materials for 25 cents 327 



I 



THE MOTTO OF THE NEW YOKK CITY PUBLIC 
SCHOOL KITCHENS 

Good cookery means the knowledge of all fruits, herbs, 
balms, and spices, and of all that is healing and sweet in 
fields and groves, and savory in meats. It means careful- 
ness, inventiveness, watchfulness, willingness, and readiness 
of appliance. It means the economy of your great^gi-and- 
mothers and the science of modern chemists. It means 
much tasting and no wasting. It means English thorough- 
ness, French art, and Arabian hospitality. It means, in 
fine, that you are to be perfectly and always ladies (loaf- 
givers). And, as you are to see that everybody has some- 
thing pretty to put on, so you are to see that everybody 
has something nice to eat. — Ruskin. 



INTRODUCTION 
HOMES AND HOME-MAKING 

The mission of the ideal woman is to make the whole world 
homelike. — Frances Willard. 

TO THE GIRLS WHO WILL USE THIS BOOK : — 

The business of home-making. — Have you ever 
thought what an important business home-making is? 
The prosperity of a nation is founded in the welfare of 
families, and the welfare of a family depends upon its 
having a healthful, happy home. 

Origin of the home. — The home, as we know it, has 
grown out of the need of a shelter for family life. 
Parent birds build nests, not for themselves, — they 
could perch comfortably under cover of leafy twigs, — 
but in order to have places in which to rear their 
young. Thus, long ago, before men had learned to 
build houses and cities, mothers, seeking shelter for 
their babies, crept into caves. These were the first 
homes of human beings. 

Women the home-makers. — The home-makers have 
always been women, the care of the home and the 
management of household industries having been at 
all times in their hands. In very early times men 

B 1 



2 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

spent their lives in hunting and fighting ; the animals 
killed they brought home for the women to cook. In 
order to do this more conveniently, the women made 
clay dishes and baked them by the fire or in the sun. 
Because the women stayed at home all day, they were 
interested to improve their way of living. Dwellings 
more comfortable than caves began to be constructed 
— tents of animals' skins, and huts made of boughs, 
such as some savages live in to-day. Finally, when 
people had become civilized, they built for themselves 
large and fine houses, varying in style to suit different 
climates and the customs of different countries. 

Of the various kinds of labor still carried on at home 
by the members of the household, the most important 
are cooking, cleaning, and laundry work, commonly 
classed, together with a few other occupations, as 
Jiousework. 

Household industries and household science. — Science 
is systematic knowledge. Household Science is systematic 
knowledge of things pertaining to the home. It treats of 
the house and its industries in their relation to the 
welfare of the household. Cookery, one branch of House- 
hold Science., treats of the preparation of food for eating. 
A rational study of any subject includes both practice 
and theory. Practice teaches how to do a thing ; theory 
explains why it should be done. 

Home and school ought to work for the good of the 
nation. — In its mission of training children to be good 
citizens, the school needs help from the home. For 
without right home conditions, including a sufficient 



HOMES AND HOME-MAKING 3 

supply of suitable and well-cookecl food, boys and girls 
cannot have the strong bodies and clear minds needed 
for doing school work while they are children, and for 
their life-work as men and women. Think, then, how 
important to the nation it is that home-makers should 
have a knowledge of Household Science ! 

Training for home-making. — All knowledge comes by 
study and practice ; a girl spends two years, at least, in 
fitting herself to teach ; a boy, even longer in learning 
a business or trade. Is special preparation less neces- 
sary for home-making, which involves many kinds of 
work, some of them difficult, and which usually includes 
the noblest of all occupations, the care and training of 
children? And do you not think, since almost every 
woman is at some time engaged either in making a home 
or in helping some other woman to make one, that every 
girl should learn all she can about housekeeping and 
home-making? 

In studying Household Science, and particularly in 
studying Cookery, you will not only learn many inter- 
esting things that you would be unlikely to discover 
for yourself in doing housework at home, but you will 
find pleasure in the work itself. Because certain house- 
hold duties may seem hard or unpleasant is no reason for 
considering housework unworthy of attention. Some 
people make hard work of housekeeping by doing it in 
an unthinking way ; when, by putting their minds upon 
it, they might discover how to make it easier and pleas- 
anter. Only by treating housekeeping as an honorable 
employment, worthy of our best thought and skill, can 



4 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

we bring about conditions of health, comfort, and hap- 
piness in our homes. 

You may enjoy reading Dora's Housekeeping, a good story of 
how a girl kept house while her mother was away ; and " Notable 
Housekeepers " (one of these being Louisa M. Alcott), an article in 
the American Kitchen Magazine, February, 1898, Vol. VIII, p. 186. 



CHAPTER I 

PREPARATORY LESSONS 

Section 1. Air in its Relation to Life and to Fire 

Sunlight, pure air, and pure water are our common birthright, 
which we often bargain away for so-called comforts. 

— Ellen H. Richards and S. Maria Elliott. 

1. Three things are essential to life, — air, water, and 
food. Of these, air is the first essential, since we can 
live without eating or drinking longer than without 
breathing. How is breathing related to health and 
life ? We can best answer this question by showing 
how air is affected by being breathed. 

AIR IN ITS RELATION TO LIFE 

2. Testing air for carbon dioxide. — Experiments. A. Into a 
clean bottle, pour a little clear lime-water ; cork the bottle, and 
shake it so that the lime-water may come in contact with the air 
in the bottle. Do you see any change in the appearance of the 
lime-water? Now hold a glass tube so that it dips below the sur- 
face of the lime-water, and blow through it for a minute or two. 
Is the lime-water changed in appearance ? Do you think that air 
exhaled from the lungs is just like air in the room? 

B. Insert a splinter in a cork, light the splinter, and fit the cork 
into the neck of a bottle. What happens? Pour a little clear 
lime-water into the bottle and shake. Note the effect on the lime- 
water. 

5 > 



6 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Air from the lungs and air in which a splinter has 
been burned both turn lime-water cloudy. It is known 
that this cloudiness is produced only by carbon dioxide, 
an invisible gas. How does this gas get into the air ? 

3. Composition of air; formation of carbon dioxide by 
burning. — Air is a mixture of two invisible gases, 
oxygen and nitrogen.^ Wood contains carbon. 

4. When the splinter is lighted, a part of this carbon 
unites with the oxygen of the air to form carbon diox- 
ide, and continues uniting with it as long as any oxygen 
is left in the bottle. When all this has been used, the 
fire goes out, because the oxygen has been replaced by 
carbon dioxide, in which nothing will burn. Part of 
the carbon remains unburned as charcoal. 

5. Formation of carbon dioxide in the body; oxygen 
necessary to life. — The presence of carbon dioxide in 
air that has been breathed is similarly caused by a slow 
kind of burning constantly going on in the body. That 
the body contains carbon may be shown by burning a 
piece of meat, which has almost exactly the same com- 
position as human flesh. It becomes black like the 
burned splinter. The oxygen of the air taken into the 
lungs unites with this carbon, produces heat to keep 
the body warm, and forms carbon dioxide. The walls 
of the little cells in the lungs are so thin that oxygen 
passes through them into tiny blood-vessels called eap- 

1 Argon, a gas discovered in 1894, is also found in air, but in such small 
quantities that it may be disregarded here. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 7 

illaries^ and at the same time carbon dioxide, brought 
by the blood from all over the body, passes out into the 
air. The blood flows on to other parts of the body, 
giving up oxygen on its way, thus literally keeping up 
the " fires of life " ; for without oxygen life would go 
out as surely as does the burning splinter. Carbon 
dioxide, on the contrary, is useless, — a substance to be 
carried off by the blood, and quickly gotten rid of 
through the lungs. 

6. Plants breathe through their leaves^ taking in car- 
bon dioxide and giving off oxygen when in the sunlight. 
At other times they give off carbon dioxide. 

AIR IN ITS RELATION TO FIRE 

7. Food being cooked chiefly by means of heat, 
cookery includes a study of fire. Let us learn what 
we can of the relation of air to fire. 

A Study of Combustion 

8. Experiments with a candle. — A. Set a two-inch piece of 
candle on the table and light it. How does it burn ? Notice the 
appearance of the flame. (Fig. 1, a.) 

B. Set over the candle a lamp-chimney supported on two pencils 
or blocks of wood. (Fig. 1,6.) Notice how the flame has changed. 
Hold your hand for a moment about two inches above the chim- 
ney, and notice the heat felt. Hold a bit of tissue paper just above 
the chimney. Is it drawn upward or downward? Hold it near 
the space at the base of the chimney. Is it drawn outward or 
inward? 

C. Remove the^ supports, letting the chimney rest upon the 
table. (Fig. 1, c.) Test for heat with your hand, then hold the 



8 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



bit of paper as before. Do you feel any heat? Does the paper 
move? What happens to the candle? Can you, by recalling the 
experiment with the splinter and the bottle, explain this ? 

D. Relight the candle, replace the chimney upon the supports, 
and cover the top with a piece of thick cardboard. (Fig. 1, d.) 
What happens? Explain. Removing the cardboard, quickly 
thrust a lighted splinter inside of the chimney. What gas do you 
think may be present ? 

E. Through a tiny hole in the cardboard pass a fine wire bent 
into a small loop at one end. Arrange candle and chimney as in 




Exp. D. Dip the wire loop into clear lime-water, which should 
form a film across the loop. Cover the chimney with the card- 
board, letting the wire hang inside. (Fig. 1, e.) About two 
minutes after the candle goes out examine the film. What gas 
has been formed ? Is the candle as large as it was before it was 
lighted? W^hat has become of the part that has disappeared? 

9. Explanation of the burning of a candle. — When a 
candle is lighted, the wax, by the heat of the burning 
match, is first melted, and then, being soaked up by the 
wick, is changed to gas. The oxygen of the air, always 
eager for something to unite with, seizes upon this gas; 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 9 

in other words, the gns hums. Whenever oxygen 
unites with another substance so rapidly that light and 
heat are given off, we have burning, or combustion. The 
light and heat we call fire. Flame is burning yas. 

10. Drafts. — In still air a candle-flame streams 
straight upward, because of the constant upward draft 
caused by the heating of air near the flame. As this 
air rises, air from below flows toward the candle to take 
its place. This in turn becomes hot and rises, thus 
starting a draft that continues as long as the candle 
burns. And, while the burning of the candle keeps up 
the draft, this draft supplies the candle with oxygen to 
keep it burning. When we place a lamp-chimney over 
the candle, leaving a space at the bottom, we make the 
draft stronger by shutting off side-drafts. The flame 
flickers, and the candle burns faster. But if either the 
opening at the top of the chimney, or the space between 
chimney and table be closed, all draft is stopped, and as 
soon as the oxygen then inside the chimney is used up, 
the candle goes out. To keep up combustion, then, we 
must have a draft. For a draft through an enclosed 
space two opeyiings are necessary^ one to let air in, the 
other to let it out. 

11. Products of combustion. — The candle, after burn- 
ing for a time, is shorter than when first lighted, because 
it has, little by little, united with oxygen to form new 
gases which stream off unseen. One of these gases is 
carbon dioxide, as is shown by the clouding of the 
lime-water on the loop of wire. Besides this, water is 



10 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

formed from oxygen and a substance in wax called 
hydrogen {water -maker). Substances foriped as a result 
of combustion are called products of combustion. Some 
of the carbon is not burned at once, but floats in tiny 
particles in the flame. If some cold object, such as a 
saucer, be held in the flame, this carbon is deposited on 
it as soot. Ordinarily, unburned carbon goes off as 
smoke. We may state the process of combustion some- 
what like an example in arithmetic : candle -f- air = car- 
bon dioxide and water. 

12. Nothing destroyed in combustion. — By letting H 
stand for hydrogen, for oxygen, and G for carbon, and, 
taking into account that oxygen unites with just half its 
bulk of carbon and with twice its bulk of hydrogen, we 
have C + 2 = CO,,, and 2 H + = HaO. 

The water, smoke, carbon dioxide, and other gases pro- 
duced would, if weighed, exactly equal the weight of the 
burned candle plus that of the oxygen used in burning it. 
Nothing has been destroyed. 

13. Burning in oxygen. — In pure oxygen, combustion 
is more rapid and energetic than in air, iron and other 
substances that will not burn in air burning readily in 
oxygen. Could we use iron stoves if our atmosphere 
were pure oxygen ? In oxygen or in air, however, 
combustion is essentially the same; whether in fire- 
place, stove, or lamp; whether a single match burns, or 
a whole building. Wherever combustion takes place, 
something unites with oxygen, giving off heat (and 
usually light), and forming products of combustion. 

The story of Prometheus, who is fabled to have stolen fire from 
heaven, is told on p. 19 of Buljinch's Mythology. You may also 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 11 

like to read in Early Chapters in Science about combustion, on 
p. 328, and carbon dioxide, on p. 332 ; and in either The Fairyland 
of Science, pp. 50-72, or in the Domestic Science Reader, pp. 123- 
131, about "The Aerial Ocean in which We Live." 

Section 2. The Kitchen Fire — Fuels 
A clean fire, a clean hearth. — Charles Lamb. 

14. In order to manage a kitchen fire successfully, 
we must understand the construction and purpose of 
every part of the range. Much fuel is wasted, food 
spoiled, and time lost because women do not take the 
trouble to do this. 

THE COAL RANGE 

15. The range and its parts. — A range or a cooking- 
stove is an iron box. It should stand upon a brick 
hearth, or a sheet of zinc, and the wall near it should 
be of brick or tiling, or else protected by zinc. 

A range has the following parts : — 

1. Fire-box, to contain fuel. 

2. Grate, which forms the floor of the fire-box. 

^ a. Creative 1 n - n p. 

6. Check j to regulate draft. 

c. Oven ] ^ V , - P 1 ^ • 

d C\\' \ direct current oi hot air. 

4. Ash-pan, to receive ashes, cinders, and clinkers (incom- 

bustible waste material and solid products of com- 
bustion). 

5. Stove-pipe, to carry off smoke (unburnt carbon) and 

gaseous products of combustion. 

6. Oven, for food. 



3. Dampers 



12 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Some ranges have other parts, — an oven for warm- 
ing dishes, a water-front, more dampers, etc., — but the 
parts named above are all that are essential. 

Distinction between a stove and a range. — A stove is 
movable, and usually has one oven with two doors. A 
range may either be built into the wall (seQ, or stand 
out in the room {portable). 

16. The range in detail. — When the fire is out take 
off all the lids and as much of the top of the stove as 
is removable. Look first at the fire-box. 

The fire-box is a rectangular space open at the top, 
lined on the sides with a fireproof material {fire -bricks)^ 
and having a movable grate for a floor. 

Underneath the fire-box is the ash-pan. It should be 
emptied once a day, and the space around it brushed out. 

The stove-pipe connects the range with the chimney. 

The oven in a stove or a portable range is back of the 
fire-box. In a set range there are generally two ovens, 
one on each side of the fire-box. An oven should con- 
tain a rack. Between the oven and the top, sides, and 
bottom of the range there is a space for the passage of 
air from the fire-box. This space must be cleaned occa- 
sionally to keep it from becoming choked with soot and 
ashes. 

The dampers are slides or doors fitted to openings in 
the range. Below the fire-box is the front damper. In 
the stove-pipe is the chimney damper. At the back 
of the oven is the oven damper, usually moved by a rod 
extending to the front of the range. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 13 

17. Management of the dampers. — By opening the 
front, chimney, and oven dampers a direct draft is pro- 
duced, the air passing from below the grate, up through 
the fuel in the fire-box, and out into the chimney. This 
arrangement of dampers is used to start the fire, or to 
increase the heat of a fire already burning. (Fig. 2, A.) 
If the front damper be opened, and the chimney damper 
closed, when a fire is starting, the smoke will come into 
the room. Why ? The chimney damper should be so 
arranged that the opening in the stove-pipe is never 
wholly closed. 

By closing the oven damper, the air heated in the 
fire-box is made to flow around the oven before enter- 
ing the chimney. By this means the oven is heated, 
and the force of the draft at the same time lessened by its 
having to make its way around corners. (Fig. 2, B.) 
Observe carefully the mechanism of the chimney dampers. 
In some ranges they are opened hy pulling the handles 
out ; in others hy pushiyig them in. The range in your 
home may differ in this respect from the one at school. 

18. The check damper is in front of the fire-box. 
Opening it sends a stream of cold air across the top of 
the fire. Air admitted below the fire-box feeds the fire 
by parting with its oxygen as it passes through the fuel. 
Air admitted above the fire-box merely flows over the 
burning fuel and goes up the chimney before it has time 
to part with its oxygen. Its effect is to check the fire 
by cooling it. 



14 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 




EiG. 2. 

Diagrams of range : A, with oven damper open ; B, with oven damper closed ; F = fire- 
box ; A = ash-pan ; = oven ; P = stove-pipe. Arrows show direction of air- 
currents. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 15 

HOAV TO MAKE A FiKE 

19. Cleaning the fire-box. — 1. Close all the dampers 
except the oven dampers. 

2. Brush the ashes from the edge of the fire-box into 
the fire-box, and put the lid on. 

3. Turn the grate over, so as to dump the ashes into 
the ash-pan. (If there is an ash-sifter in the range, the 
ashes will fall upon this, and must afterward be sifted 
through it into the pan.) 

20. Laying the fire. — 4. Lay the fire : — 

a. Fill the fire-box one-third full of shavings, or 
wisps of paper twisted in the middle so as to expose a 
large surface to the air. 

h. On these lay small sticks of soft wood crosswise, 
or one bundle of such kindling as is sold by grocers in 
New York City. 

c. Put two shovelfuls of coal on top of the wood. 

The fuel should be arranged loosely in order that the 
air may have free passage through it. (See Fig. 2.) 

5. Cover the top of the range. Open all the dampers 
except the oven dampers. 

21. Starting the fire. — 6. Light the fire by applying 
a lighted match between the bars of the grate to the 
paper or shavings inside. (If the stove is to be black- 
ened, do it now.) 

7. When the wood is all ablaze, add coal until the 
fire-box is level full. (As the wood burns away the 



16 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

coal will settle. The fire-box should never be kept 
more than three-fourths full.) 

22. What to do when the fire is well started. — 8. When 
the blue flame disappears, close the oven dampers, and 
half close the lower damper. When the coal is burning 
well, close the lower damper entirely, and half close 
the chimney damper. 

How TO MANAGE A FlRE 

23. For a steady hot fire, rake out the ashes with a 
poker from beneath the grate ; or, if the grate is a 
revolving one, give it one turn. Fill the fire-box three- 
fourths full of coal. Open the lower front and chimney 
dampers. See that oven and check dampers are closed. 
When the coal in the lower part of the fire-box is glow- 
ing red, the top layer still black, and the flames yellow, 
close the dampers. When the top layer begins to glow, 
add more coal, so that there will always be black coals 
on top. 

To heat the oven. — Open the oven and chimney 
dampers, keeping all others closed. 

To check the fire slightly, open the slide in the check 
damper. To check it decidedly, open the check damper 
itself. All other dampers must be closed. 

To keep a fire over night. — Fill the fire-box with coal ; 
close oven, lower front, and chimney dampers, and open 
the checl^ damper. 

24. Kindling-point. — Why is it, with active oxygen 
always in the air, ready to devour, that chairs, tables, 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 17 

houses, do not take fire and burn ? Simply because a 
substance must be heated to a certain degree before it 
will begin to unite with oxygen. Except for this, 
everything combustible would have burned up long 
ago. The temperature to which a substance must be 
raised before it will burn is its kindling-point. This 
point differs for different substances. See how we take 
advantage of this fact in starting a fire. We first light 
a match, the phosphorus ^ on which kindles from the 
friction of striking, setting on fire the sulphur mixed 
with it. This, which has a somewhat higher kindling- 
point than phosphorus, in turn ignites the wood of the 
match, the kindling-point of which is higher still. Coal 
will not take fire from a match, because its kindling- 
point is so high that the match burns out before the 
coal becomes hot enough to burn ; but paper may be 
lighted from a match, wood from burning paper, and 
coal from burning wood. 

To start a fire three things are required : oxygen^ fitel^ 
and some means of raising the fuel to its kindling -point. 

THE GAS RANGE 

25. Some of the advantages of a gas stove or range over 
one burning coal are, (1) it saves time and labor, (2) it does 
not heat the kitchen uncomfortably in summer, and (3) it is, 
if managed IV ith care, more economical, because no fuel need 
be burned when the stove is not in use. 

26. Connections. — The range should be connected with 
the largest main pipe accessible (not less than one-half inch 

1 Phosphorus burns, though slowly, at the ordinary temperature. 
It must, therefore, be kept under water. 



18 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

bore inside measure). If within six inches of the wall, the 
connecting-pipe should be protected by zinc or tiling. 

27. The range and its parts. — A range of ordinary size 
has : — 

1. Four top burners, for saucepans, kettles, etc. 

2. One or two sets of oven burners, for heating the ovens. 

3. A baking oven, for bread, cake, and large roasts. 

4. A broiling oven (below the burners) with rack and pan, 

for steaks, chops, etc., for small roasts, for toast, and 
for dishes to be browned. 

5. Gas-cocks, one or more to each top burner, two to the 

oven burners, to regulate the supply of gas. 

6. An oven lighter, or "pilot light," at the right-hand side 

of the oven, for lighting the oven burners. 

7. A stove-pipe, connected with the chimney, for carrying 

away gases produced by combustion. 

The broiling oven is heated directly from the oven burners, 
the baking oven by currents of heated air passing around it, 
as in a coal range. Some ranges have a small top burner, 
called a simmering burner; all ranges should have a mov- 
able sheet of iron under the top burners. The connecting 
pipe is sometimes fitted with a gas-cock. 

Air is admitted to the burner through holes in the supply 
pipes. This makes the gas burn with a blue and very hot 
flame. 

How TO Manage a Gas Range 

28. Learn which pipes supply each burner; learn the 
position of each gas-cock, when open and when closed. 

"When the range is not in use keep all gas-cocks closed, 
i.e. turned toward the right. It is 7iot sufficient to turn 
off the gas hy closing the cock in the connecting pipe only; 
if this is done, leaving other cocks open, the gas, when 
next turned on, will escape unlighted. If it escapes 
into the oven, a dangerous explosion is likely to take 
place, on lighting the oven burners. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 19 

How to light the gas range. — To light a top burner_ 
first open the cock in connecting pipe by turning it to 
the left; then open the cock in tlie pipe supplying the 
burner, let the gas flow for two or three seconds, and 
apply lighted match or taper. If the burner is a double 
one, and you wish to light both parts, light one first ; 
then turn the cock admitting gas to the other, and it 
will light from the first. To light the oven burners, first 
see that all stop-cocks regulating the supply of gas to 
the oven burners are closed, and that both oven doors 
are open. Now open the pilot light cock, and light the 
pilot light from the outside, through the hole made for 
this purpose ; this done, open first one oven cock and 
then the other. Each set of burners will light with a 
slight explosive sound ; wdien you see that both are 
burning blue and clear, turn off the pilot light. 

If the gas burns yellow with a roaring noise, it has 
" struck back," and is burning in the air-chamber. Turn 
it off at once, let it flow a few seconds, and relight it.^ 

29. How to use the gas range. — For broiling, toasting, 

etc., have oven burners lighted and doors closed at least 
five minutes before using the oven. Place the rack and 
pan close under the burners. For roasting in the broiling 
oven, observe the same rules and turn the roast fre- 
quently. For baking, light the oven burners and close 
the door ten to fifteen minutes before putting in the 
food. 

30. To avoid wasting gas. — 1. As soon as the contents 
of a kettle or saucepan boil, turn the gas down, and 
keep it as low as possible without checking the boiling. 
For simmering, turn still lower or use the simmering 

1 In some ranges the supply of air may be regulated by turning a 
cap, which enlarges or decreases the size of the air-holes in the supply 
pipe. 



20 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

burner. When so little heat is required that the gas 
is in danger of going out, turn it up a little and mod- 
erate the heat by putting an asbestos board over it. 
2. When the oven is sufficiently hot, close one oven 
cock, or partly close both. 3. Always turn off the gas 
the instant you are done using it, even if it is to be re- 
lighted ; matches are cheaper than gas. 

31. Care of the gas range. — Keep air-holes clear. 
Draw out iron sheet under top-burners and clean it once 
a day. For further care see § 95. 

FUELS 

32. Anything that unites readily with oxygen may be 
used as fuel. Fuels common in American households 
are coal, wood, coal-oil (kerosene), and, in some places, 
gas. 

33. The story of coal. — Coal, by composition and 
structure, is shown to be of plant origin. Leaves, ferns, 
bark, whole tree trunks even, have been found turned 
to coal in mines. The slow process of decay that effected 
this change took place long before men lived on the 
earth, at a time when the land was covered with thick 
forests different from any growing now. Many trees 
then resembled gigantic ferns. Evidently these forests 
were flooded from time to time, the trees being over- 
thrown and buried beneath sand washed in by the water. 
The flood subsiding, a new forest arose, to be in turn 
similarly buried. Pressure, combined with heat greater 
than now prevails anywhere on earth, slowly carbonized 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 21 

these layers of plant-substance into seams of coal. 
This period is known as the Carboniferous Age. 

34. Coal works for us. — The heat of burning coal 
may be utilized to cook food, melt iron, make steam to 
drive engines, and do hundreds of other kinds of work. 
A person able to work is said to have energy. Whence 
comes the energy of coal ? From its carbon ; and to 
find out where that came from we must go back to the 
Carboniferous Age. 

35. The heat of fires conies from the sun. — The carbon 
taken in by plants becomes, we know, part of the 
plants ; but only with the aid of sunlight can they 
breathe in carbon dioxide from Avhich to obtain carbon. 
(§ 6.) The sun, then, is the source of the energy in 
coal ; we may say that the sun lights our fires, Stephen- 
son, the inventor of the locomotive, when asked what 
drove his engine, answered, " Bottled-up sunshine." 
He spoke the exact truth ; the sun's energy is stored 
up in coal-mines until, with pick and blasting powder, 
man sets it free. 

36. Hard and soft coal ; buying coal. — Hard, or 
anthracite, coal is the result of almost perfect carboni- 
zation of wood ; in soft, or bituminous, coal the process 
has not gone so far.^ The latter is crumbly and dull, 
and burns with much smoke. Which yields the more 
heat, i.e. has the more energy, hard or soft coal ? Hard 

1 Wood contains about 50 per cent of carbon, bituminous coal about 
77 per cent, antliracite about 90 per cent. All coal contains sulphur. 



22 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

coal is best for household use. A good quality is jet 
black and glossy, breaks into roughly cube-shaped pieces, 
is free from slate, and yields little clinker. For a stove 
with a small fire-box, use "chestnut" coal; for most 
ranges a mixture of " stove " and " chestnut " is desir- 
able. Too small coal will fall between the bars of the 
grate before being burned. It is prudent to buy a 
year's supply of coal in summer, when it is cheapest ; 
coal bought by the pound or basket costs about three 
times as much as if bought by the ton. 

37. How to save coal and gain heat. — Coal burns at 
first with a blue flame, but when thoroughly afire, with 
a clear, red glow. When white-hot, almost all its -heat- 
giving power has been exhausted. A good coal fire 
consists of a mass of red coals covered by a layer of 
black ones heating and ready to kindle when the red 
ones die out. More heat is gotten from the same quan- 
tity of coal by adding it to the fire a little at a time 
than by putting it on all at once. 

38. By the first method the coal gets sufficient air to be 
burned to carbon dioxide (CO;,) ; by the second, much of it is 
burned to carbon monoxide (CO), thus taking up only half as 
much oxygen as it is capable of uniting with, and of course, 
producing less heat. 

39. Kerosene, or " coal-oil," prepared from the mineral 
oil petroleum, is the cheapest household fuel, and is 
safe when of good quality and when burned in stoves 
intended for it. Never use kerosene to kindle a ivood or 
coal fire. When heated, it gives off vapor that in con- 
tact with fire is likely to explode. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 23 

I 40. Natural gas, used for heating and ligliting, flows 

I from the ground. Both it and coal-oil are believed 
to be of vegetable origin. What is the source of their 
energy ? Artificial gas is made from coal. 

In The Fairyland of Science, you will find an interesting chapter, 
illustrated, on " The History of a Piece of Coal." Coal and the 
Coal-mines tells all about coal, and has pictures of Pennsylvania 

I mines, plant forms found in coal, etc. 

I Another good book (not quite so simple as this) is Chemistry in 

Daily Life. For information about primitive ways of obtaining 

i fire, and about Matches and Phosphorus, see pp. 17-22; Petroleum, 

' pp. 28, 29; Gas and Gas-stoves, pp. 83-36. 

Chapter VII of Home Economics tells some things not mentioned 

I in this text-book, about fuels and fires. Domestic Science in Gram- 
mar Grades tells about "The Evolution of Fire," on p. 29, and 
about " Ancient Forests and Modern Fuel," on p. 32. 

Section 3. "Water 

Men really know not what good water's worth. — Byron. 

41. Water in nature. — Water occurs more commonly 
and in larger quantities than any other liquid.* It 
exists not only in the ocean and in other bodies of 
water, but in plants, the bodies of men and animals, 
and even in rocks and other things that seem quite dry. 
Air contains water ; some fruits consist of little but 
water and flavoring, with just enough solid matter to 
give them form ; our own bodies are about three-fifths 
water. 

Water is called "the universal carrier." It carries 
soil from place to place, piling in valleys what it washes 
away from hills ; it bears seeds from one shore to plant 



24 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

them on another. It is the water in sap that enables it 
to flow through plants, carrying material to build them 
up ; it is the water in blood that enables it to do the 
same for the animal body. Without water there is no 
life ; a seed kept dry never sprouts ; an unwatered 
plant dies. 

Water as a Solvent 

42. Much of the material carried by water is dis- 
solved in it. 

Experiments in solubility. — A. Put a level teaspoonful of salt 
into a glass of cold water. AVhen the salt has disappeared taste the 
water. Put another teaspoonful into hot water. In which does 
the salt disappear more quickly ? Try the same experiment with 
powdered chalk. 

Salt is soluble in water ; chalk is insoluble in water. 
Hot water dissolves salt more quickly than cold water 
does ; that is, it is a better solvent for it. 

B. .Find out which dissolves faster, a whole lump of sugar, or 
a lump broken into bits ; coarse or fine salt. 

Water dissolves more substances than any other 
liquid. To this property it owes much of its carrying 
power. The more finely divided a substance is the 
more rapidly it dissolves. Why ? 

C. Boil some of the salt solution till the water is all gone ; 
taste the residue, and tell what it is.i 

1 Sugar cannot be recovered from solution by boihng in the open 
air ; it burns before it becomes solid. It may be recovered by crystal- 
lization, which we shall learn about in Chapter IX. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 25 

43. Pure water ; impurities, organic and inorganic. — 

Clean water is colorless, odorless, and nearly taste- 
less. Its slight taste comes from various substances 
dissolved in it. One of these is air. If a glass of 
water stands until the air in it appears in bubbles on 
the glass, it is found to taste "flat." Absolutely pure 
water has no taste. Such water is not found in nature. 
That most nearly pure is the rain-water that falls dur- 
ing the latter part of a shower. The first rain to fall 
carries down with it dust and other impurities from 
the air. As water flows over or soaks through the 
ground, it dissolves a good deal of inorganic or mineral 
matter, with some that is organic, that is of plant or 
animal origin. 

44. Living things, plants or animals, differ from lifeless 
things, in being able to feed, grow, and reproduce them- 
selves. Organs were once supposed to be necessary for 
these acts; and, in consequence, things once part of an 
animal or a plant, as well as things actually alive, were 
termed organic. Though we now know that some tiny 
living things have no organs, we still use the words organic 
and inorganic to distinguish these two kinds of matter. 
Examples of inorganic matter : water, sand, carbon dioxide. 
Examples of organic matter : wood, perspiration, leaf -mould, 
manure. 

45. Soft water best for cleaning and cooking. — Neither 
dirt nor soap dissolves readily in hard water. The 
latter forms with it a curdy substance. For cleaning 
and laundry purposes hard water should be softened by 
the addition of washing soda or ammonia. A moderate 
degree of hardness does not injure water for drinking 



26 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



purposes. As a rule soft water is desirable for cooking, 
especially when the object is to draw out flavor or 
nourishment from food, as in making soup or tea. 

46. Drinking water should be pure. — Much organic 
matter in drinkins^ water makes it unwholesome, and 




Fig. 3. 

4? = cesspool into which drain empties. 
W= well into which contents of cesspool run through layers of sand and gravel. 

may make it dangerous. Most objectionable of organic 
impurities is sewage, which is likely to contain disease 
germs. Wells are often dug for convenience near 
houses. Figure 3 sIioavs how such a well may be pol- 
luted by house and stable waste. Fortunately, polluted 
water tends to become purer by filtering through the 
ground, and by running over its surface where air can 
reach it. 

Spring water and water from artesian wells is usually 
pure. City water, if not from pure sources, should be 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 



27 



filtered through sand beds. Filters of charcoal or porce- 
lain for household use must be kept clean, or they soon 
become filled with impurities, making the water passed 
through them fouler instead of purer. Small filters 
screwed on to faucets are of little or no value. Drinking 
water about the purity of which there is any doubt 
should be boiled to kill germs (bacteria^. (§§ 57-59.) 
Water may dissolve lead from the pipes it runs through. 
To avoid the risk of lead poisoning, let the water run 
for a few minutes — long enough for what has stood in 
the pipes over night to run off — before drawing any 
for use. 



A Study of the Effect of Heat on Water 

47. Experiment. — Put some water in a saucepan or other ves- 
sel. Take its temperature with a thermometer. Set it on the stove 
or over a Bunsen burner, and 
hold the thermometer so that 
its bulb is below the surface of 
the water, but not touching the 
bottom of the vessel. (Fig. 4.) 
Watch the sides and bottom of 
the saucepan. 

Are the bubbles large or 
small at first? After a little 
while? AVhat comes off from 
the surface of the water ? Note 
the temperature of the water. 
Note it again when the bubbles 
begin to break at the, surface. 
Does the mercury rise after this? 
Increase the heat. Can you 
make the water any hotter? 




Fig. 4. 



28 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

48. The changing of water into steam ; simmering-point 
of water 185° F. ; boiling-point 212° F. — When water is 
heated the air dissolved in it expands, forming tiny 
bubbles. These rise, but the cold water near the sur- 
face chilling them, they contract, and sink again. When 
all the water has become warm they rise and escape. 
By this time the heat is beginning to change the water 
into steam, an invisible gas. The steam bubbles are 
larger than the air bubbles. As they near the surface 
of the water, they are cooled, and condensed, i.e. turned 
back to water. This bubbling below the surface is 
called simmering. ^ The temperature of the water is 
now about 185° F. The water growing hotter, some of 
the bubbles reach the surface and break there, giving 
oiT clouds of steam. Now, for the first time, the 
Avater boils. Its temperature is 212° F. By increasing 
the heat the water may be made to boil faster, but it 
will not grow hotter. All the heat is now being used 
in turning water into steam. If boiled long enough all 
the water turns to steam and disappears in the air. 
If steam be cooled, by coming against a cover, for 
instance, it gives up its heat and becomes water 
again. 

The word vapor is applied to gases that, under ordi- 
nary circumstances, are liquid. Steam, therefore, is 
water-vapor. 

1 In cooking, it is sometimes important to keep water simmering ; 
at other times necessary to have it boiling. Learn to distinguish 
between these, When steam comes in jets from the spout of a tea- 
kettle, the water boils. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 29 

49. The weight of air pressing on the surface of water 
prevents the steam from escaping until it gains force enough 
to overcome this pressure. At the sea level water boils 
at exactly 212°, but on a high mountain at a temperature 
several degrees lower. If the steam be confined, water may 
be raised to several degrees above 212°; for the air under 
the lid soon takes up all the vapor it can hold, making it 
impossible for any more water to be changed into steam. 
The heat that would otherwise be used in making steam is 
now saved and makes the water hotter. 

50. Real steam is invisible, the mist we call steam 
being steam partially condensed. The slow forming of 
water-vapor that takes place at ordinary temperatures, 
in the drying of clothes, the disappearance of water 
after a rain, and the like, is called evaporation. 

51. Effect of cold on water. — At 32° F. water freezes, 
becoming ice. At 32° ice melts, forming water. By 
heating it, ice may be in a few minutes changed to 
water, and from water to steam. Do you know of 
anything else that is changed from solid to liquid, and 
from liquid to gas, by heat ? 

52. Solids, liquids, and gases. — The particles of which 
a solid is composed hold firmly together, those of a liquid 
hold loosely ; those of a gas tend always to go farther 
apart. Heat separates particles of matter ; on cooling, 
they draw together again. ^ Hence we say, "Heat 
expands, cold contracts." Hot air rises, because by 
expanding it becomes thinner and lighter. 

1 Exception. — Water expands just before it freezes ; hence the 
bursting of pipes. 



30 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

53. Composition of water. — Water is composed of hydro- 
gen and oxygen. In what experiment was water formed? 
Where did the hydrogen come from ? The oxygen ? Water 
may be decomposed by sodium, a soft white metal. A bit 
of this thrown upon water unites with its oxygen so rapidly 
as to catch fire. The hydrogen, ignited by this, burns also, 
as is shown by the appearance of the blue hydrogen flame. 

Some Facts about Water to be Remembered 

54. 1. A solid dissolved in water Avill, in most cases, 
be found at the bottom of the vessel after the water has 
evaporated or boiled away. 

2. Boiling expels air from water, making it taste 
" flat." Boiled water should be poured back and forth 
several times from one pitcher to another, or shaken in 
a large bottle, to restore its flavor. 

3. Hard water may be made soft by boiling. 

4. Impure water may be made safe for use by boiling. 

5. Since, by ordinary means, water cannot be made 
hotter after it begins to boil, fuel is wasted iii keeping 
up more fire than is required just to keep the water at the 
hoiling-point. 

6. By covering the vessel some of the steam is con- 
densed, thereby saving heat. 

55. Water in relation to health; drinking freely of 
pure water makes for health. — The water we drink or 
take in as part of our food aids digestion, conveys 
nourishment to all parts of the body, removes waste, 
and in other ways keeps the body in order. Large 
quantities of cold water should not be drunk when one 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 31 

is overheated; nor should water or any other liquid 
be used to wash down solid food. 

Suggestions for reading and home work in connection with this 
section. — Read in Early Chapters in Science about thermometers, 
pp. 241-24:4; and about the density of ice, pp. 250, 251. Try dis- 
tilling water and crystallizing alum according to directions on pp. 
231 and 236. See what Dr. Prudden writes in his little book, 
Drinking-water and Ice Supplies, about *' The Earth's Stock of 
Water," pp. 12-15; "Kinds of Water," pp. 31-37; "Some Ways 
of Getting Water," pp. 78-89; and "Solid Water" pp. 115-125. 
This last chapter tells how ice is cut and stored. 

Section 4. Cleanliness and Cleaning 

All things of thee partake. 

Nothing can be so mean 
But with this tincture, For Th>j sake, 

It will be bright and clean. 

A servant by this clause 

Makes drudgery divine ; 
Who sweeps a room as by Thy laws, 

Makes that and the action fine. 

— George Herbert. 

56. Pure air and pure water we have seen to be 
simply clean air and clean water. The importance of 
cleanliness is better understood than ever before, now 
that scientists have shown the close relation between 
dirt and disease. The dirt that shows most plainly 
may not be the most objectionable. A dusty chair is 
of much less consequence than an unclean dish-cloth. 

57. Two kinds of dust: living and lifeless; bacteria. 
— The dirt in houses consists for the most part of dust, 



32 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



both alone and mixed with grease (fatty matter), mois- 
ture, and sticky substances. Dust is earth or other matter 
in particles so fine that it can he raised and carried hy 
the wind. Dust is everywhere present. We see how 
quickly it gathers on the floor and the furniture ; a 
sunbeam shows us that the air is full of it. This visible 
dust was for a long time the only kind known about. 
It has been discovered, however, that mixed with visi- 
ble dust is another kind, so fine that it can be seen only 




Fig. 



Two kinds of mould often found on food. 




with a microscope. This invisible dust is composed of 
tiny plants and their seeds, or spores. When these 
spores fall upon suitable material they grow. When 
enough plants are growing together they can be seen 
with the naked eye. 

58- Experiments. — A. Expose a piece of bread or cheese, or 
some cooked fruit, to the air for a few days, covering it to keep it 
moist. What appears on the surface ? 

B. Examine this growth with a magnifying-glass or microscope. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 33 

Microscopic plants are of three kinds, moulds, yeasts, 
and bacteria (singular bacterium^ rarely used). They 
will be studied in other chapters. 

59. Bacteria the most objectionable kind of dust. — Vis- 
ible dust may do harm by irritating the throat and 
lungs ; but certain kinds of bacteria, if they enter the 
body, may produce such diseases as consumption, diph- 
theria, and typhoid fever. Other kinds cause food to 
spoil. Bacteria thrive best in dark, damp places, where 
other dirt is present. Anything that kills bacteria or 
hinders their growth is called a disinfectant. 

Natural Aids to Cleanness 

60. Light, air, and water. — Light promotes cleanness 
by revealing the visible dirt and destroying the invis- 
ible. Direct sunlight is a better disinfectant than mere 
daylight. A draft of air removes dust, smoke, and 
watery or greasy vapors, which combine with air to coat 
surfaces with an unclean film. It is impossible to live 
in a cleanly manner without a liberal use of water. 
Water is useful for cleaning on account of its power as 
a solvent (§ 42). 

Friction is required to remove soil closely attached to 
a surface or ingrained in the material. 

Artificial Aids to Cleanness (Plate II). 

61. Implements and materials for cleaning. — The im- 
plements for cleaning include brooms, brushes, cloths, 
pails, etc. Cleansing materials are of two sorts, those 



34 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

that act mechanically by friction, and those that act 
chemically upon dirt removed with difficulty or not at 
all by water ; for example, grease and stains. Care 
must be taken to use implements and materials that will 
remove the soil without injuring the surface beneath it. 

Cleaning^ powders. — For additional friction mineral 
powders are employed. White sand is used for scouring 
iron and wood ; bath brick for steel knives ; tripoli or 
rottenstone for copper, brass, or tin; whiting for silver, 
aluminum, and brass. 

62. Bath brick is made from earth containing lime. 
Tripoli is impure decayed limestone. Rottenstone is a fine 
kind of tripoli. Whiting is powdered English chalk made 
very fine by sifting it through muslin, or by floating it on 
water so that the heavier particles may sink. 

63. Alkalies; the removal of grease. — Most important 
of chemical cleaning materials are certain alkalies, those, 
most commonly used being soda (also called sal-soda and 
washing-soda) and ammonia. The former is much the 
stronger. Potash, or lye, an alkali similar to soda, was 
much used before soda became cheap enough to drive it 
out of the market. 1 By means of these, grease can be 
removed, since any alkali unites with grease to form a 
compound soluble in water. 

64. How soap cleans. — Soap is a preparation of alkali 
in a convenient form. It is a compound of soda or 
potash with acids found in fat. Potash makes soft soap ; 

1 A compound sold in round cans labelled " potash " is simply com- 
mercial caustic soda. 



PLATE II. 




Materials used ix Cleaning. 




Implements and Materials used in Cleaning. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 35 

soda, or potash to which salt has been added, hard soap. 
Water decomposes the soap, and the alkali thus set free 
attacks any grease it touches. Any dust mixed with 
this grease can then be washed away. Soap and water 
is effective for almost all cleaning purposes. 

65. Sal-soda ; care in using it. — If a stronger form 
of alkali is needed, sal-soda is the best for general use. 
Being cheap, it forms the basis of most washing-powders 
and compounds. As these are often sold for many 
times their value, it is more economical to buy the soda 
itself. On account of its powerful action upon the 
skin it must be used with care. Do not add soda directly 
to the washing -water ^ hut dissolve one pound of it in one 
quart of ivater^ in a saucepan over the fire. When it is 
cool put it in a bottle labelled " Sal-soda Solution," and 
pour in a little when needed. 

66. Ammonia is used chiefly in laundry- work. It 
may be used instead of sal-soda for general cleaning. 
(For the use of alkalies with hard water, see § 45.) 

Kerosene. — Kerosene is useful for cleaning polished 
woods which would be injured by alkalies. Kerosene 
and alkalies are both excellent disinfectants. 

Cleaning Metals 

67- Experiments. — A. Let a piece of iron lie wet in the air for 
several hours. Pour a little water into an old worn tin dish ; allow 
a few drops of water to fall on a steel knife-blade; and let dish 
and knife lie for some time. What do you observe? Has the tin 
rusted ? How can we keep steel from rusting ? 



36 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

B. Lay one silver spoon next to a rubber band. Wrap another 
in white flannel. Lay a bright brass button in a dry place. Wrap 
another in damp cloth. Examine all these after a day or two. 
Would you approve of keeping silver wrapped in white flannel ? 
What effect has dampness on brass ? 

68. Tarnish and rust.^ — Rust is a compound formed in 
the presence of moisture, by the union of the oxygen of 
the air with iron (§ 103). Tarnish is a discoloration of 
polished metals caused by the action of oxygen, sulphur, 
or some other element upon the metal. The sulphur 
used in making rubber and in bleaching cloth, and the 
sulphurous gases from burning coal or gas, form with 
silver a grayish black compound insoluble in water. 

69. C. Try to remove the tarnish from silver with whiting, 
with alcohol ; from brass with rottenstone, with rottenstone and 
water, with rottenstone and oil, with vinegar or lemon-juice. Com- 
pare the effectiveness of the various materials. 

70. Removal of tarnish. — Labor is saved by using an 
acid or other substance that will act chemically on the 
tarnish, dissolving it.^ A mineral powder completes 
the work and adds polish. Oil, water, or acid, — lemon- 
juice or vinegar, — mixed with the powder, forms a 
paste easy to apply. The cleaning preparations in the 
market are the substances described above, or combina- 
tions of them, sometimes with the addition of coloring- 
matter. 

1 Tarnish and rust, although, strictly speaking, not dirt, are re- 
moved by similar means, and are therefore conveniently treated of 
here. 

2 It is not always safe to use a chemical, although it may be easier. 
For instance, any chemical that brightens zinc eats into it. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 37 

71. Putz pomade is a mixture of whiting, oil, and acid. 
Sapolio is a compound of fine clay, alkali, and fat. Most 
silver-powders are simply whiting. Stove-blacking is made 
of graphite mixed with molasses or other sticky substance. 

Care of Floor and Woodwork 

72. Care of kitchen floor. — The best kitchen floor is 
of hard wood, oiled or varnished. If anything is spilled 
upon it, wipe or brush it up at once. Cover grease- 
spots on wood or stone with flour, starch, or powdered 
chalk, which will absorb the grease. Cold water poured 
upon grease as soon as it is spilled will harden it ; the 
greater part may then be scraped off. Sweep the 
kitchen floor thoroughly once a day. With care it will 
not need washing or scrubbing oftener than once a week. 

73. How to sweep. — Before beginning to sweep, see 
that no food is left uncovered in the room. Sweep from 
the edges of the room toward the centre. Sweep with 
short strokes, keeping the broom close to the floor. 
Turn it edgewise to clean cracks. When the dust has 
been gathered at one spot, take it up with a short 
broom and a dust-pan, and, if possible, burn it at once. 
Never sweep dust from one room into another. Always 
siveep a floor before washing or scrubbing it. 

74. How to scrub a floor. — Soft-wood floors must be 
scrubbed. Provide two pails of cold or lukewarm 
water, a stiff scrubbing-brush, a large, soft, but not 
linty cloth, and soft soap and sand, or sand-soap. Dip 
the brush in water, then in soap, and lastly in sand. 



38 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Look for grease-spots and take them out first. After the 
floor lias become wet you cannot see where they are. 
Scrub with the grain of the wood, doing a few square 
feet at a time. Dip the cloth in clean water, and wash 
the part that has been scrubbed. Use no more water 
than you need. Wet the cloth again, wring it as dry as 
you can, and wipe the floor. Proceed in this way until 
the whole floor has been cleaned. 

75. Care of hard-wood floor. — On a hard-wood floor use 
little water or none at all. Wipe it with a cloth mois- 
tened with a very little kerosene, — a teaspoonful or two 
to begin with, and as much more when that has evapo- 
rated. Rub hard with another cloth until the wood is 
perfectly dry. Window-sills and all hard-wood finish 
may be cleaned in the same way. 

76. Care of oil-cloth. — Wash oil-cloth with warm 
water and milk, — one cupful of skim-milk to one gallon 
of water ^ — and wipe dry with a clean cloth. 

77. Cleaning paint. — To clean paint, provide whiting, 
two basins or pails of water, and three clean, soft cloths, 
— woollen is best. Take a little whiting on a damp cloth, 
and rub it on the surface to be cleaned. Do not let 
drops of water trickle down the paint. Wash off with 
a second cloth and clean water. Wipe dry with a third 
cloth. Clean a little at a time, leaving the cleaned 
part dry before going on. 

78. Dusting. — After sweeping a room dust the wood- 
work, furniture, and movable articles with a soft cotton 



PLATE III. 






;HHj.ir ^ 


HHHI|Bl\, m ililliPi 


!l 







The Sink and its Fittings. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 39 

cloth. Spread the cloth out and gather the dust into 
it, folding it in as you work. Shake it frequently out 
of the window. In the kitchen where there are no 
delicate articles to be injured by moisture, use a damp 
cloth. To have it just damp enough, wet a part of it, 
wring this out, fold the damp part and the dry together, 
and squeeze them. When the room has been dusted, 
wash the cloth and hang it to dry. 

The Sink and its Fittings (Plate III) 

79. Construction of the sink ; the trap. — Soapstone 
and enamelled iron are the best materials for a sink. 
Wood is least desirable, because hardest to keep clean. 
The space below the sink should be left open. The sink 
should slope down toward the waste-pipe. The waste- 
pipe should have a bend in it that will allow water to 
stand in it deep enough to prevent gases from passing 
up from the drain into the kitchen. This bend is called 
a trap. The water it contains is called a water-seal. 
(T, Fig. 6 A) 

After pouring soiled water down the waste-pipe, 
follow it with clean water, so that foul water shall not 
stand in the trap. If a sink is left unused for several 
days or longer, the water-seal may evaporate so that 
gases from the drain rise into the room. On this 
account a house that has been vacant should be well 
aired before being occupied. 

80. Sink-fixtures and conveniences. — There should be 
a strainer, screwed down over the top of the waste-pipe. 



40 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

VP 

A 




W 




^jSink properly trapped and connected with sewer; 5, Sink improperly connected 

with sewer. 



Si = sink 
T = trap 



W = waste-pipe. VP = vent-pipe. 

S = sewer. H D = house-drain, 

C = connection of waste-pipe with drain. 
Arrows show direction of current of sewer-gas. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 41 

It is well to have a finer strainer also, through which 
to pour waste-water. This, by catching crumbs which 
might pass through the set strainer, helps to keep the 
sink clean. A grooved draining-board, sloped toward the 
sink, and a shelf above the sink for cleaning materials, 
are convenient. There should be hooks for hand-basin, 
dipper, soap-saver, sink-scraper, and scrubbing-brush. 
The garbag^e-pail should be of metal, or indurated fibre. 
Its cover should fit tightly. 

81. Care of the sink. — Neglect of the sink causes bad 
odors, attracts water-bugs and roaches, and not infre- 
quently produces disease. Keep it at all tiines free from 
scraps. When the dishes have been washed, or when 
the sink is to be left unused for several hours, wash it, 
using scrubbing-brush and sapolio. Wipe the wood- 
work and tiling. Wash strainer, soap-dish, and other 
sink utensils. Wash the cloth. Scrub the draining- 
board, and rinse the sink. If it is of iron, and is to 
be left for several hours, wipe it dry. If rusty, use 
kerosene, or grease it with mutton-fat or lard, sprinkle 
with lime, and leave over night. 

82. Care of faucets. — Clean brass faucets with flannel 
dipped in vinegar or lemon-juice, and rub thoroughly 
with rottenstone and oil, then polish with a dry cloth. 
Or apply putz pomade or some similar preparation, rub 
off with another cloth, and polish with a third one. If 
the faucets are greas}^ wash them with soap-suds or sal- 
soda solution before using anything else. Metal cleaned 
with acid tarnishes quickly unless all trace of the acid 



42 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

is removed by rubbing with powder. (§ 105.) Nickel 
faucets and trimming^s need only to be washed with hot 
soap-suds and wiped dry. 

83. Care of waste-pipe and trap. — Waste-pipe and 
trap must be kept as free as possible from deposits of 
grease. After pouring down very greasy water pour 
down boiling water, that the grease may not cool and 
settle on the sides of the waste-pipe. Once a week 
pour down a strong hot solution of sal-soda (one-half 
cupful of soda to two quarts of water^. If the pipe 
becomes clogged use a stronger solution. 

84. Care of garbage-pail.^ — Scrub the garbage-pail 
with sal-soda and rinse with boiling water once a day. 
Dry it in the sunshine, if possible. 

Care of Dishes 

85. Dish-washing need not be an unpleasant task if 
these four rules are observed : 1. Use hot soapy water. 
2. Change the water frequently. 3. Have the dishes 
free from crumbs and scraps before beginning to wash 
them. 4. Wash kettles and other cooking utensils first. 

86. Directions for dish-washing. Preparation. — 1. 

Collect all dishes to be washed. 2. Scrape them, put- 
ting scraps in an earthenware or enamelled dish ; wipe 
frying-pans and other greasy dishes with pieces of soft 
paper. This paper may be used for kindling. 3. Fill 

1 It is better to avoid using a garbage-pail. Garbage may be burned 
in a bright fire if all the drafts are left open. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 43 

greasy pots and pans with hot water to which a tea- 
spoonful of sal-soda has been added, and let them stand. 
Soak dishes that have contained batter, dough, eggs, or 
any starchy material in cold water ;• dishes that have 
been used to cook sugar, in hot water. 4. Put all 
dishes of a kind together ; plates in piles, knives, forks, 
and spoons laid with handles one way, etc. Place near- 
est to you the dishes to be washed first. 5. Have a 
clean dry place clear for clean dishes. 6. Make ready 
two pans, — one half full of hot soapy water, and the 
other half full of clear hot water. 

87. Washing. — 7. Wash the dishes in the follow- 
ing order : a. Large kettles and cooking utensils. 
h. Smaller articles of kitchenware. c. (With clean 
water and dish-cloth) glassware, d. Silver, e. Cups 
and saucers. /. Plates, g. Platters, vegetable dishes, 
etc. 

88. General instructions. — 8. Wash all dishes, includ- 
ing kettles, inside and out, in soapy water ; rinse in 
clear water, drain, and wipe dry. 9. Use sapolio to 
remove food that sticks or is burnt on. 10. Use a wire 
dish-cloth on ironware, a scrubbing-brush, if necessary, 
on enamelled ware, tinware, and wire strainers. Clean 
seams in tinware and enamelled ware with a wooden 
skewer. 

89. Special instructions. — 11. Do not put knife- 
handles in water. Water discolors and cracks ivory 
and bone handles, and may loosen wooden ones. After 



44 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

washing knives, scour them with bath brick. 12. Do 
not wash bread-board or rolling-pin at an iron sink. The 
iron will leave marks on them. Wash them at the 
table. 13. Be careful not to wet the cogs of a Dover 
egg-beater. Wash the lower part, and wipe off the 
handle with a damp cloth. Water washes the oil from 
the cogs, thus making the beater hard to turn. 14. Dry 
the seams of a double-boiler carefully. 15. Do not waste 
time polishing tins. It is sufficient to have them clean 
and dry. 

16. Dip glasses into hot water, so that they will 
be wet inside and outside at the same time. Unequal 
expansion of the glass, caused by one part being heated 
suddenly, is what breaks them. 17. Silver and glass 
are brightest if wiped directly from clean, hot suds, 
without being rinsed. A damp towel makes dull 
spoons and glasses. 18. Scald, i.e. rinse with boiling 
water all vessels that have contained milk. 19. Wash 
teapot and coffee-pot in clean hot water without soap, 
and wipe dry. Clean the spout carefully. Let them 
stand for a while with covers off. 20. Wash dish-pan 
and rinsing-pan, and wipe dry with a towel, not with 
the dish-doth. 

For care of towels and sink, see §§81 and 92. 

90. To scour steel knives. — Scrape off a little bath 
brick with the hack of the knife or with an old knife. 
Dip a cork in water or oil, and then in the brick-dust. 
Hold the knife firmly, with the blade resting flat upon 
a level surface, and rub both sides of the blade with the 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 



45 



cork. (Fig. 7.) Wash the knife. Scour steel forks 
in the same way. Never scour silver-plated knives or 
forks. 




Fig. 7. 

91. To clean silverware. — Moisten a soft cloth 
with water, dip it in fine whiting, and apply to the 
silver. When the whiting has dried, rub it off with 
another soft cloth, and polish with chamois-skin. To 
cleanse chasing or ornamental work, use an old tooth- 
brush. Rub egg-stained spoons and other badly 
tarnished articles with salt before washing them. Wash 
in ammonia and water. 

Tarnish is not soluble, but with the chlorine in the 
salt it forms a new compound soluble in ammonia. 
(§ 102 and § 104.) 



Care of Kitchen Towels and Cloths 

92. Dish-cloths, dish-towels, and sink-cloths should 
be hemmed. Lint and threads from unhemmed cloths 
are likely to obstruct the sink drain. Use each cloth 
only for the purpose for ivhich it is intended. 



46 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

93. The dish-cloth. — No detail of housekeeping is 
more important than keeping the dish-cloth clean. A 
damp, sticky, greasy dish-cloth breeds disease. The 
disease germs on the cloth are transferred to the dishes, 
and from them to the people who eat from them. In 
this way a whole family has sometimes been made sick. 
Wash the dish-cloth with hot water and soap after using 
it. Rinse it, shake it out, and hang it to dry, — in the 
sun, if possible. Boil it once a week, or whenever 
washing fails to make it white. Never use it for any- 
thing except washiyig dishes. 

94. Other cloths. — Wash dish-towels once a day in 
warm water, using soap. Rinse them in warm or cold 
water, and hang them to dry with the ends pulled 
evenly together. Strainer-cloths that are not greasy 
may be washed in cold water. Wash greasy ones in 
hot water with soap or sal-soda. To remove fruit stains 
from a cloth, lay it over a bowl and pour boiling water 
upon the stain. All cleaning-cloths should be washed, 
rinsed, and dried after being used. 

Care of Stove and Zinc 

95. If anything is spilled on the stove or rang^e, wipe 
it off at once with soft paper. Use sapolio to remove 
anything not taken off by the paper. To keep it black 
and clean, Avipe it daily with a few drops of kerosene 
on a cloth. Polishing is unnecessary ; but if you prefer 
to polish it, apply stove-blacking just after the fire has 
been started, and polish with a brush or coarse cloth. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 47 

Zinc discolors easily. Even a drop of water allowed 
to stand on it will make a spot. It may be cleaned 
with a little kerosene rubbed on with a flannel, or 
with electro-silicon on a damp cloth. Polish with dry 
flannel. 

Care of Refrigekator 

96. The waste-pipe of the refrigerator or ice-box should 
empty into a pan, or into the open end of a properly 
trapped drain-pipe ; it should never be continuous with 
the drain-pipe, such an arrangement making easy the 
passage of sewer gas into the refrigerator. 

Daily care. — Keep the inside of the food chamber dry. 
See that no food remains in the refrigerator long enough 
to spoil. Empty the pan, if there is one, every day. 

Weekly cleaning. — Qlean the refrigerator thoroughly at 
least once a week. Take out both food and ice. Wash 
shelves and racks with hot soapsuds or with sal-soda 
solution, and rinse with clear hot water. Dry them in 
the open air or by the fire. Wash the food chamber 
and the air chamber in the same way. Clean grooves 
and corners with a skewer, and run a wire with a cloth 
twisted around it down the waste-pipe. Rinse the pipe 
with hot sal-soda solution. Wipe the refrigerator dry ; 
and if possible, let it remain open for an hour. 

Care of Articles used in Cleaning 

97. Rinse scrubbing-brushes and dry them in the sun, 
bristles down. Hang up brooms, when not in use, by 
strings tied into the handles. Do not waste soap by 



48 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

leaving it in water. Keep knife-cleaning materials in 
one box, silver-polishing materials in another, etc. See 
that all things used in cleaning are kept clean. 

Treatment for Insects 

98. To have a kitchen free from cockroaches and 
water-bugs, keep every part of it clean and dry, and leave 
no uncovered food, soiled dishes, garbage, or crumbs 
about. To destroy the pests, dissolve one pound of alum 
in three pints of hot water, and pour the solution while 
hot into cracks and crevices. Also sprinkle borax in 
all places where the insects have been seen. 

Personal Cleanliness 

99. Observe the following rules in the school kitchen 
and at home : — 

1. When cooking, or doing other housework, wear a 
washable gown short enough to clear the floor by at 
least two inches. 

2. When in the kitchen, pin or tie your hair back so 
that no hairs may fall into the food. When sweeping, 
cover it with a cap or kerchief to protect it from dust. 

3. Wear no rings or bracelets in the kitchen. 

4. Before touching or preparing any food, wash your 
hands thoroughly with soap and water ; scrub the nails 
with a nail brush, and clean them with a wooden tooth- 
pick or a regular nail cleaner. 

5. Keep a damp towel at hand, on which to wipe 
your fingers if they become soiled or sticky. Always 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 49 

wipe them after touching your hair or pocket handker- 
chief, or after handling the coal-hod, or anything else 
not quite clean. Never wipe them on your apron, your 
handkerchief, or on a dish-towel. 

6. Never dry dishes with a hand-towel. 

7. The best way to taste of what you are cooking is 
to take a little of the food up with the mixing-spoon, 
put it in a teaspoon, and taste from the teaspoon. If 
you should happen to taste from the mixing-spoon, wash 
it before putting it back into the dish. 



of 



The history of soap and the process of soap-making are written 
in Chemistry of Daily Life, pp. 204-213. 



Section 5. Matter: its Nature and Changes 

The chemistry of cooking is largely . . . the application of heat 
to the food material in such a way as to bring about the right changes 
and only these. — Ellen H. Richards. 

100. We have seen that familiar substances may undergo 
great changes. The burning candle changes from an opaque 
white solid to a translucent liquid, and then to a mixture of 
invisible gases. Salt, upon being mixed with water, becomes 
a clear liquid not distinguishable from water itself. The 
solid carbon of wood and the gas oxygen unite to form car- 
bon dioxide, a gas quite different from oxygen ; and when 
the action is over, a handful of gray ashes is all the solid 
substance left. Heat readily changes ice to water, and 
water to steam. 

We are so used to these happenings that they excite in us 
no wonder ; yet, for hundreds of years men have been study- 
ing these and similar changes without finding out all there 
is to be known about them. So important is the part they 
play in our everyday work, especially in cooking, that a 



50 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

knowledge of the simpler facts about them is a great help 
to housekeepers. 

101. Physical and chemical changes. — Liquid candle 
grease returns to the solid form when cooled ; dissolved salt 
may be recovered by evaporating the water ; even steam 
may be collected, condensed, and frozen. In these cases it 
is plain that the changes are only changes in form. A 
change in the form of matter without change in its composi- 
tion is called a physical change. When, however, melted 
candle grease becomes gaseous, it will not return to its origi- 
nal form ; burnt sugar will never be sweet and white again ; 
water acted upon by sodium is neither water, steam, nor ice. 
In these cases the new substance has a different composition 
from the old one. A change in the composition of matter is 
called a chemical change. Heat, especially in the presence 
of moisture, often brings about chemical changes. 

102. Elements and compounds. — Some substances are 
simple ; that is, they consist of but one thing. Examples : 
iron, oxygen, carbon. A simple substance is an element. 
Other substances are composed of two or more elements. 
Examples : water, carbon dioxide. Into what elements may 
water be sej^arated ? Carbon dioxide ? A substance com- 
posed of two or more elements combined is a compound. In 
a mixture each substance keeps its own properties; in a 
compound these give place to new properties belonging to 
the compound. Every chemical change involves either the 
forming or the decomposition (breaking up) of a compound, 
usually both. 

103. Four elements found in food ; some of their proper- 
ties. — Foods consist of compounds formed chiefly from 
oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, with small quan- 
tities of other elements. Oxygen is an invisible, odorless gas. 
It is a very active element, always ready to unite with other 
elements to form new compounds. The combining of oxygen 
with another element is called oxidation. The rusting of 
metals and the decay of organic matter are slow forms of 
oxidation. Oxygen forms about one-fifth of the volume 



PREPARATOHY LESSONS 51 

of air, eight-ninths of the weight of water, and two-thirds 
of the weight of the human body. Hydrogen in an invisible 
gas. It will burn, uniting with oxygen to form water. It 
forms about one-ninth of the weight of water, and one- 
eleventh of that of the human body. Nitrogen is an invisible, 
incombustible gas. It does not readily combine with other 
elements, and the compounds into which it enters break up 
easily. It forms about one thirty-ninth of the weight of the 
body. Carbon exists as an element in two forms, graphite, 
the so-called " lead " of pencils, and the diamond. It is most 
commonly met with in a slightly impure form as charcoal. 
Of all the elements, no other enters into so many compounds 
as does carbon. It is contained in all organic substance, 
as is shown by their blackening (carbonizing) when heated. 
All foods except common salt consist of organic matter. 

104. Salts. — A salt is a compound resulting from the 
union of an acid with one of a class of substances called 
bases. Acids, bases, and salts are further treated of in 
Chapter V, Sec. 1. Common salt (sodium chloride) can be 
'nade by adding hydrochloric acid to caustic soda. 

105. Action of acids on metals. — Acids act on metals, 
particularly those exposed to dampness and air, forming 
salts or oxides of the metals. The staining of steel and the 
corroding of tin and other metal ware by potatoes, fruit, etc., 
is caused by the action of organic acids in the food. The 
salts formed in this way are likely to be poisonous. Food 
not naturally acid becomes so by long keeping, or by decay. 

Reading that may help you better to understand the topics 
briefly discussed in this section : Early Chapters in Science ; con- 
nection, conduction, radiation, pp. 252-257 ; elements and com- 
pounds, pp. 313, 314 ; oxidation, p. 323 ; three states of matter, 
pp. 231-240. 



52 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



Section 6. Definitions, Tables, Rules 

If a man or woman has not the soul of a cook, the most minute 
recipes will end in failure. — Kuttner. 

106. Food and cooking ; how and why food is cooked. — 
Food is whatever nourishes the body. Cooking is making 
food ready to eat. This is done chiefly by means of 
heat. 

Food is exposed to the action of heat, (1) to make it 
more digestible, (2) to improve its flavor, and (3) to 
kill any living things it may contain. 

Many vegetable foods, and a few animal foods, oys- 
ters, for instance, may be eaten uncooked. All plant 
foods undergo a kind of cooking by the heat of the sun, 
as do animal foods by the heat of the animal body. 

Principal Methods of Cooking 

1. Broiling: cooking over a glowing 1 

fire. I Direct applica- 

2. Roasting: cooking before a glow- | tion of heat. 

ing fire. 

] Application by 

3. Baking: cooking in an oven. j- means of 

j heated air. 

4. Boiling: cooking in boiling water. ] „ , ,. , 
r nj ' 1 ' r 1 i • xdeat applied 

5. Stewing: cooking tor a lon^ time , ^^ . 

° , , ^, , .,. [ by means oi 

\n water below the boiling- ^ , 

. ^ water, 

point. , 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 



63 



6. Steaming: 



'a. moist: cooking in 
steamer. 

h. dry: cooking in 
double boiler. 



By contact 

with steam. 
By the heat 

of steam 

surrounding 

vessel. 



9. 



Heat applied 
by means of 
heated fat. 



Heat applied 
by means of 
heated metal. 



Frying: cooking in hot fat deep 
enough to cover the article to 
be cooked. 
Sauteing ^ : cooking in a small 
quantity of hot fat. 

cooking in a fry- 
Pan-broiling: ing-pan or on a 
Pan-baking : griddle, with little 
or no fat. 

10. Braising: a combination of stewing and baking. 

11. Fricasseeing : a combination of frying and stew- 

ing. 

Table of Measures 

3 teaspoonfuls make 1 tablespoonful 

16 tablespoonfuls of any dry ingredient make . . . . ^ 1 cupful 
12 tablespoonfuls of liquid make 1 cupful 

4 cupf uls make 1 quart 

Table of Comparison between "Weights and Measures 

2 cups of butter (packed solidly) is equal to 1 pound 

2 cupfuls of finely chopped meat (packed solidly) •' 1 pound 
2 cupfuls of granulated sugar " 1 pound 



1 Pronounced sotaying. 



2 A half-pint cup is the standard. 



54 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

2% cupfuls of powdered sugar is equal to 1 pound 

27^ cupfuls of brown sugar " 1 pound 

2% cupfuls of oatmeal " 1 pound 

4^ cupfuls of rolled oats " 1 pound 

4 cupfuls of flour (about) " 1 pound 

9 or 10 eggs " 1 pound 

2 tablespoonfuls of butter '' 1 ounce 

4 tablespoonfuls of flour " 1 ounce 

" The juice of one lemon " 3 tablespoonfuls 

Directions for Measuring 

107. 1. Sift, or shake up lightly with a spooD, all 
dry materials (flour, baking-powder, etc.) before meas- 
uring them. Always sift mustard. 

2. All measures are to be taken level unless other- 
wise directed.^ 

3. To measure a cupful of dry material, fill the cup 
with a spoon or scoop, and level off Avith a case-knife. 
To measure a teaspoonful or tablespoonful of dry ma- 
terial, fill the spoon by dipping it into the material, lift 
it, and level off with a case-knife. To measure a half- 
spoonful, divide a spoon lengthwise with the knife. 
Divide a half-spoonful crosswise to measure a quarter, 
and a quarter-spoonful crosswise to measure an eighth. 
Less than an eighth of a teaspoonful is called " a few 
grains." (Plate IV.) 

4. A cupful of liquid is all the cup will hold ; a 
spoonful of liquid is all the spoon will hold. A heaping 

1 In most cookbooks, including all published before 1896, it is in- 
tended that spoonfuls of flour, baking-powder, sugar, butter, and lard 
should be measured rounded. One rounded spoonful is equal to two 
level spoonfuls. 



PLATE IV. 




^tealllel• Colander Stniinors FLsh-boiler 

Double boiler Melon-mold Flour-sifter Funnel 

Vegetable press (for puddings, ice-cream, etc.) Lemon-squeezer 
Potato-masher Biscuit-cutter 

Cooking Utensils. 




One cupful of sugar weighing oue-half pound 
Quart-measure Measuring one cupful of dry material 

Half-pint measuring-cup 

One-half teaspoonful, One-fourth tablespoonful, 
measured measured 

Measuring. 



PREPARATORY LESSONS 55 

spoonful of dry material is all the spoon will hold. A 
scant cujDful is measured by filling the cup to within 
one-eighth of an inch of the brim. 

Note. — Success in cooking depends greatly upon accuracy 
in measuring. Only after much practice in measuring as here 
directed, should you venture to measure even small quantities by 
your eye. The requirement of accurate measuring and the giving 
of exact quantities of material in the recipes in this book, are not 
intended, however, to do away with the exercise of individual taste 
and judgment. So long as flours vary in thickening quality, and 
spices and other cooking materials in strength, it will be impossible 
to WTite recipes that can be followed absolutely in all cases. Fol- 
low a recipe exactly the first time you use it ; if it requires to be 
varied, you can then make the change intelligently; whereas, if 
you have not followed it exactly, you cannot be sure which is at 
fault, the recipe or the cook. 

The quantities of seasonings given in this book are, as a rule, 
the smallest desirable. Increase them cautiously to suit your 
taste ; but do not fall into the error, common in America, of over- 
seasoning food with pepper and salt. 

Table of Abbreviations used in this Book 

tb. stands for tablespoonful, or tablespoonfuls. 

t. stands for teaspoonful, or teaspoonfuls. 

c. stands for cupful, or cupfuls. 

qt. stands for quart. 

pt. stands for pint. 

lb. stands for pound. 

oz. stands for ounce. 

f.g. stands for a few grains. 

r. stands for rounded. 

hp. stands for heaping. 

sc. stands for scant. 

min. stands for minute, or minutes. 

hr. stands for hour. 



56 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Hints on how to Work 

108. 1» See that the fire is ready for use, or so ar- 
ranged that it will be ready by the time it is needed. 

2. Collect all the materials that will be needed. 

3. Collect all the dishes, spoons, and other utensils 
that will be needed, including a plate on which to lay 
sticky spoons, knives, etc. 

4. Take care not to make work for yourself by using 
more utensils than are necessary. For instance, by 
measuring dry materials first, then liquids, and last, 
fats, you need use only one cup. 

5. When milk and eggs are used, save a little of the 
milk to rinse out the bowl in which the eggs are beaten. 

6. Use an earthen bowl and a wooden spoon for 
mixing cakes, muffins, etc. A tin dish and an iron 
spoon are likely to discolor the mixture. 

7. Have all materials ready for use (flour sifted and 
measured, eggs broken, raisins stoned, etc.), before be- 
ginning to put them together. 

8. Cover flour-barrel, sugar-bucket, baking-powder 
can, etc., as soon as you have taken from them what 
you need. 

9. Clear up as you work, putting dishes to soak as 
soon as they are emptied, and washing them at once if 
you have a moment to spare. 

10. When you have finished, collect all the dishes 
that remain, saving any unused material that is in good 
condition. 

11. Learn to work neatly, carefully, quietly, and 
quickly. 



Practical application is the only mordant which will set 
things in the memory. Study without it is gymnastics., 
and not work, which alone will get intellectual bread. 

— James Russell Lowell. 



CHAPTER II 

FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 

Section 1. The Potato 

Likewise a food, as also a meete for pleasure, being either roasted 
in the embers, or boiled and eaten with oile and vinegar, or dressed 
in anie other way by the hand of some canning in cookerie. — Gerard. 

Recipes 

Baked Potatoes 

Select medium -sized potatoes, scrub them well, and 
dry them. Bake them in a shallow pan on the rack in 
a moderately hot oven until soft (usually about forty- 
five minutes). Turn them occasionally, that they may 
bake evenly. When soft, press them between the fin- 
gers, and break the skin to let the steam escape. Serve 
them folded in a napkin in an uncovered dish. 

Boiled Potatoes 

(^Put water to hoiL') 

Select potatoes uniform in size. Scrub or wash them, 
and if they are to be pared, pare them lengthwise, 
remove the "eyes" and any dark spots, and drop them 
into cold water. Put them into a kettle with enough 
boiling water to cover them.^ When they have boiled 

1 To keep them from discoloring. The oxygen of the air forms 
with the potato a dark-colored substance. This acid also stains the 
paring-knife. 

69 



60 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

twenty minutes, add salt, using one tablespoonful to 
six potatoes. When the potatoes can be pierced easily 
with a fork or kuitting-needle, drain off all the water, 
shake the kettle gently, sprinkle the potatoes with a 
little salt, cover the kettle with a cloth folded in 
several thicknesses, and let it stand in a warm place 
until the potatoes are served. Serve them uncovered. 

A Study of a White Potato 

109. What is a potato? A root? let us see if by 
examining one we can find out. On its surface are 




Fig. 8. — Potato-plant 



little scars, called " eyes." If a potato be buried in the 
ground in mild weather, or kept in a warm, dark place. 



PLATE V. 




Cold Oatmeal molded and garnished with Sliced Bananas. 




Iodine Test for Starch. 

Diluted tincture of iodine in one test-tube, starch-paste stained by iodine in the other. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 61 

what happens ? It sprouts ; that is, the eyes send out 
green shoots that in time have leaves. These eyes, 
then, must be buds, and the potato a stem, not a root ; 
for, ordinarily, roots do not bud. A thickened under- 
ground stem like this of the potato, is a tuber. ^ Potato 
roots are slender and fibrous. 

Hold a thin slice of potato to the light. Is its sub- 
stance denser near the edges or at the centre ? Can 
you make out an appearance of network ? 

110. Analysis of potato ; experiments to find out what a potato 
contains. — A. Pare and grate a piece of raw potato. Squeeze it 
in a piece of cheesecloth held over a bowl. Rinse what remains 
in the cloth with cold water, and squeeze it as dry as you can. 
What does it seem like ? 

B. Let the liquid in the bowl stand until a white sediment 
settles ; then pour it off carefully. Add a little water to the sedi- 
ment and boil it. Does it act like anything you have seen before? 

C. Mix one teaspoonful of cornstarch with one tablespoonful 
of cold water, add one-fourth cupful of boiling water, and stir 
until clear. Do the same with laundry starch. Dissolve about 
one teaspoonful of salt in one-fourth of a cupful of water ; do the 
same with one teaspoonful of sugar. Add a few drops of tincture 
of iodine to a test-tube of water. Pour a little of this iodine solu- 
tion into each of the starch pastes. What happens? Try a few 
drops in the salt solution. In the sugar solution. Has it the 
same effect on these as on the starch ? (Plate V.) 

Starch is turned blue by iodine. No other substance 
being affected in this way, iodine serves as a test for 
starch. 

1 The sweet potato is a true root, but from its resemblance to a 
tuber is called a tuberous root. It differs from a white potato chiefly 
in containing sugar. 



62 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



D. Add a drop or two of iodine solution to the white substance 
obtained from the potato. What do you think it is? Test a 
slice of potato for starch. 



COMPOSITION OF POTATO AS SHOWN BY ROUGH 
ANALYSIS 



1. Plant fibre 
(partly 
cellulose). 


Similar to fibre of wood. 
Forms walls of cells, or lit- 
tle divisions, in the potato. 


Too tough to be 
digested ; there- 
fore of little 
food value. 


2. Water. 


About 75 per cent of the 
weight of the potato. Fills 
cells. 




3. Starch. 


White insoluble powder 


The chief food- 




floating in water in cells ; 
with boiling water forms 


stuff in pota- 
toes. 




a jellylike paste. 





Potatoes also contain : 



4. Potash salts 
and other 
m i n e r a 1 
matter. 



5. Other substa 
food value. 



Lying mostly just beneath 
the skin. 



nces in such small quantities 



as to be of little 



111. To find out how much water a potato contains, pare 
and weigh it. Lay it in a warm, dry place, weighing it 
every day until it ceases to lose weight by evaporation 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 63 

of its moisture. Compare the final weight with what it 
weighed at first. The difference between these shows how 
much water the potato contained. 

To show mineral matter in potatoes, heat a bit of potato 
in a crucible or evaporating dish over a Bunsen burner till 
only gray ashes are left. 

112. Experiment to show the relation between the sprouting of a 
potato and its composition. — Let a potato lie in a dark, warm place 
until it sprouts. Bring it to the light from time to time and ob- 
serve the growth of the sprouts, also any change in the size of the 
potato. What do you think the sprouts feed on? Would a 
sprouted potato be as nutritious as an unsprouted one ? 

113. Growing and harvesting. — Potatoes are grown 
from cuttings, not from seed, each piece planted being 
cut so that it has two or more eyes. Why not leave 
one eye only ? They are planted in April and May, and 
harvested mainly in early autumn. 

114. How to choose and keep potatoes. — The tuber is a 
storehouse of starch /or the nourishment of the young shoot. 
In potatoes dug too early the starch is immature or un- 
ripe. In those kept too long after digging the starch 
has been partly changed to gum, a substance more ser- 
viceable than starch to the growing plant, but not so 
nutritious for man. 

Potatoes are best (fullest of starch) in the fall and win- 
ter. Select those regular in shape, of medium size, and with 
smooth skin. A bushel of very large potatoes gives the 
purchaser less than a bushel of smaller ones, which pack 
more closely. Green bitter spots are caused by the potatoes 
being grown too near the surface of the ground. Keep 
them in a cool, dry place. If sprouts appear pick them off. 



64 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

115. Economy in paring and cooking potatoes. — Is 

the skin of a potato thick in proportion to the eatable 
part ? Do we need to take off a thick paring ? 

By experiment it has been found that potatoes pared 
before being boiled lose much of their food value dur- 
ing cooking, nearly one-fifth of the mineral matter, with 
some other soluble substances, and a little starch, pass- 
ing into the cooking water. The longer the potatoes 
lie in water before they are cooked, the greater is this 
loss. Observe therefore the following 

Rules for paring Potatoes 

116. 1. When potatoes are free from black spots or 
other imperfections, boil them in their skins, paring off 
only a narrow strip around the middle of each potato 
to prevent its bursting. 2. Always pare potatoes thinly^ 
and take out eyes with the point of the knife. 3. To 
make the loss from pared potatoes as small as possible, 
put them at once into boiling water and as quickly as 
possible bring it to the boiling-point again. Old or 
poor potatoes must he pared^ and are improved by soak- 
ing for one hour in cold water, to restore the moisture 
lost by long dr3dng. 

117. Potatoes cooked to make them digestible. — Hard 

compact granules of raw starch, enclosed by walls of 
woody fibre, are not easily acted upon by the digestive 
juices. The object of cooking potatoes is to break open 
these cell-walls and to soften and swell the starch. 
Heat and moisture are needed to do this. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 65 

118. Cross-section of a potato and potato starch under the micro- 
scope. — A. Soak the thinnest slice of potato you can cut in cold 
water for a few minutes. Examine a bit of this slice under the 
microscope. What shape are the cells? Compare their size with 
that of the starch grains in them. B. Draw from memory the cross- 
section as you saw it under the microscope, and write a description 
of it. C. Examine under the microscope a speck of potato starch 
the size of a pinhead. Observe the shape and markings of the 
granules. Draw a few granules from memory. 

How TO COOK Potatoes 

119. 1. Potatoes must be cooked till soft all through. 

2. Since potatoes contain more than sufficient water 
to soften the starch in them, they may be baked. The 
excess of water is changed to steam during cooking, 
leaving the starch dry and flaky. If allowed to recon- 
dense, the starch reabsorbs it, making the potatoes 
" soggy " instead of " mealy," as they should be. Pota- 
toes allowed to stand in water after they are cooked 
through absorb some of the cooking water with the 
same result. What precautions do we take to avoid 
this? (See recipes for Boiled and Baked Potatoes.) 

3. Rapidly boiling water wears off the outside of the 
potato before the middle is cooked. Let it huhhle gentli/. 

4. If the outside of large potatoes becomes soft while 
the centres are still hard, add one pint of cold water. 
Enough heat remains inside of the potatoes to finish 
cooking them. 

5. Potatoes baked in a slow oven become dry and 
hard. Quickly baked potatoes are more easily digested 
than boiled potatoes; slowly baked ones, less so. 



66 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Potato Recipes 

RiCED Potato 

Press boiled potatoes through a coarse strainer or a 
vegetable press into a hot dish. 

Mashed Potato 

Mash potatoes (boiled without their skins) in the 
kettle in which they were cooked, using a fork or a 
wire potato-masher. When free from lumps, add for 
each pint of mashed potato 

1 tablespoonful of butter, melted in 

3 tablespoonfuls of scalded milk, 
X to >^ teaspooiiful of salt, and 
^ teaspoonful of Mdiite pepper.^ 

Beat all together until light and creamy. Heap in a 
dish without smoothing the top. It may be put in a 
baking-dish, the top brushed with milk, and browned 
in a hot oven. 

Creamed Potatoes 

Cut cold boiled potatoes into one-half inch cubes ; 
put these into a saucepan, nearly cover them with milk, 
and cook gently until nearly all the milk is absorbed. 
Add white sauce, stir for one minute, sprinkle with 
finely cut parsley, ^ and serve. 

1 Always use white pepper on potatoes, in white sauce, and in any- 
other food where black pepper would show distinctly. 

2 To cut parsley. — Pick off several sprigs ; if wet, dry with a clean 
towel. Hold them in a firm bunch on a board or plate, and cut them 
through and through, repeating until very fine. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 67 



White Sauce (for Vegetables) 



Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. Salt, Yz teaspoonful, ) 

Flour, 2 tablespoonfuls. Pepper, ^ teasx^oonful, ) 

Milk, 1 cupful. 

Rub flour and butter together with a spoon in a small 
saucepan. Add milk, and stir steadily over a moderate 
heat until the sauce boils. Add salt and pepper. 

For richer white sauce use part cream. Cream sauce is 
white sauce made with all cream instead of milk. Use 
one and one-half teaspoonfuls of flour to one cupful of 
cream. 

Sweet Potatoes 

Sweet potatoes are best baked.* If to be boiled, leave 
the skins on, pare after cooking, and dry for a few min- 
utes in a moderate oven. They may be riced. 

120. Food value of potatoes. — Potatoes contain too 
small a quantity of foodstuffs to be valuable if eaten 
alone. Eaten with richer food, they form an important 
article of diet, and one we do not tire of, particularly if 
they be cooked in a variety of ways. 

For more about sweet and white potatoes see pp. 193-199 in 
Food Prodncts of the World; or pp. 59, 60, in Foods and Bev- 
erages, au interesting little book written for school children. 
Repeat at home the experiments in this section ; use some of the 
starch you obtain to starch small pieces of cloth. Bring these and 
some of the dried starch and cellulose to school. 

1 This recipe makes one cup of sauce, enough for four moderate- 
sized potatoes, or one pint of potato cubes. 



68 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Section 2. Starch 
Sources op Starch 

121. Experiments. — A. Put one heaping tablespoonful of 
cracked or rolled oats with about one cupful of cold water in a 
small bowl ; rub the oatmeal between your thumb and fingers for 
a few minutes, and observe the effect on the water. Fill a small 
test-tube (a) with the water and set it aside. 

B. Half fill another test-tube {b) with the water and boil it. 
Compare the paste formed with that from potato starch (§ 110). 
Add a drop of iodine solution. What substance does oatmeal 
contain ? 

C. Soak rolled wheat, corn-meal, tapioca, rice, or any prepa- 
ration used for breakfast mush, as you did oatmeal in Exp. A; 
boil the water, and test it for starch. Is there any substance com- 
mon to all these foods ? What is it ? 

D. Test any or all of the following substances for starch : ^ — 
flour, milk, fish, white of egg, cabbage, meat (in order to see the 
color, use cooked chicken, lamb, or veal), apple, turnip. Do any 
of the animal foods contain starch? Do all the vegetable foods 
contain starch ? Explain why flour is used to thicken white sauce. 

E. Pour off the water in test-tube a and dry the powder 
found at the bottom. Can you distinguish it in appearance and 
feeling from potato starch ? 

122. Starch (oat, potato, or any other kind) is a fine 
white glistening powder, insoluble in cold water, but 
partially soluble in hot water, with which it forms a 
jellylike paste. It is turned intensely blue by iodine. 
Starch is formed and stored up by many growing plants 
as food for the young shoots, collecting in autumn to 
be used in spring. Laundry starch is made from corn. 

1 Simply test with iodine without adding water or heating. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 69 

A Study of Starch 

123. Starch under the microscope. — Under the micro- 
scope starch is seen to consist of irregularly shaped 
granules formed of layers folded around a central point. 
Starches from different plants differ from one another, 
granules of potato starch being larger than those of 
any other kind, and something like oyster shells in 
shape and marking, while rice starch granules are angu- 
lar and very small. When cooked the granules lose 
their distinctive appearance. 

A. Examine potato starch, rice starch, cornstarch, and other 
starches under the microscope. Do the different kinds of starch 
granules look aUke ? Are they all the same size? Which kind 
is largest? Which smallest? Make memory drawings of two or 
more kinds of starch granules as they appear under the microscope. 

B. Examine samples of starch paste under the microscope. 
Can you tell which is made from rice starch, which from potato 
starch, and so on ? 

124. Experiments showing how to prevent starch from lumping 
while cooking. — A. Pour about two tablespoonf uls of boiling 
water upon one teaspoonful of dry cornstarch, stirring as you pour. 
What happens? Break open one of the lumps. What do you find 
inside ? Would pouring boiling water upon starch be a good way 
to cook it? Why not? 

When boiling water is poured upon dry starch, lumps 
form, because the starch first touched by the hot water 
swells suddenly, forming a sticky envelope around the 
rest, thus keeping it from swelling. 

B. Repeat Experiment A, mixing one-half tablespoonful of 
granulated sugar with the starch before stirring in water. Result? 



70 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Explanation. — The grains of sugar, by separating the starch gran- 
ules, give the latter room to swell and thicken the liquid smoothly. 

C. Repeat Experiment A, mixing one-half tablespoonful of 
cold water with the starch. Note result and explain. 

D. Mix one-half tablespoonful of starch with one-half table- 
spoonful of butter or other fat, add two tablespoonfuls of cold 
water, and cook, stirring until the mixture thickens. Result ? 

125. Starch used to thicken sauces. — Starch is used to 
thicken liquid in making sauces and gravies. In what 
three ways may lumping be avoided ? Which of these 
ways is used in making white sauce ? 

126. Starch, dextrin, and caramel. — Starch, heated dry, 
changes to dextrin, which is soluble in cold water. In 
browned flour part of the starch has undergone this change, 
lessening the thickening property of the flour, and at the 
same time part of the dextrin has been further changed to 
caramel, which causes the brown color. The inside of baked 
potatoes is partially dextrinized, and the crust under the 
skin is largely caramel and dextrin. It is the presence of 
these soluble substances that makes baked potatoes more 
easily digestible than boiled ones. A temperature of 320° F. 
is required to dextrinize starch. Explain wdiy dextrin is 
not formed in boiled potatoes. 

127- Experiments in heating starch dry. — A. Heai about one 
tablespoonful of starch in a test-tube (or on a small tin pan kept 
for use in experiments). When brown, take out part of it and test 
it for starch, (1) by heating with water, (2) by adding iodine. 

B. Continue to heat the rest of the starch in a test-tube, until 
black. What is the black substance? What do you observe on 
the sides of the test-tube ? 

128. Composition of starch. — Starch is composed of 
carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. When heated, the two 
last pass off as water, leaving the carbon. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 71 

129. Digestion of starch. — Digestion is a process of 
solution. Saliva begins the digestion of starch by 
changing some of it first into soluble starch, and then 
into a sugar called maltose. Starch digestion is com- 
pleted in the small intestine. 

A substance in saliva, called ptyalin, causes this change. 
(§ 230.) The test for maltose is Fehling's solution/ which 
combines with it to form a reddish or orange-colored sub- 
stance. 

Experiments to show the action of saliva on starch. ^ — A. Make 
a thin starch paste (about one-half teaspoonful of starch to three 
or four tahlespoonfuls of water). Divide this between two test- 
tubes ; in a third collect some saliva. Pour part of the saliva into 
one of the tubes of starch paste. Add a few drops of Fehling's 
solution to (1) the saliva, (2) the starch, (3) a portion of the mix- 
ture of saliva and starch. Do any of these change color? Does 
either saliva or starch alone contain maltose? Explain the pres- 
ence of this sugar in the mixture of starch and saliva. 

B. At the end of fifteen minutes, test the mixture for starch 
with iodine. A violet or a red color shows that the starch is par- 
tially changed to sugar. Is the action of saliva on starch chemical 
or physical ? The action of the sugar on Fehling's solution ? 

Starch as Fuel for the Body 

130. The work of the body. — How does eating help 
to keep us alive ? Life involves activity ; work, play, 
activity of any sort, makes us hungry ; food gives us 
energy to go on working and playing. Any activity 

1 A mixture of copper sulphate and caustic potash. 

2 Precaution. — Test starch for sugar before adding saliva. Some 
starches are mixed with a little sugar. Cornstarch and starch pre- 
pared from hominy are usually pure. For best results, keep the 
tubes standhig in lukewarm water (98° F.). 



72 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

that uses up energy is, in the scientific sense, work. 
Your muscles work as hard in playing a game as in 
going on an errand, and just as truly does the heart 
work in pumping blood, the stomach in digesting food, 
the brain and nerves in giving rise to thought and 
feeling. 

What else does food do for us? Breathe on your 
fingers; your breath is warm. Evidently heat is pro- 
duced in the body. 

131. The body compared to a steam-engine. — Just as 
heat and mechanic power are produced by burning fuel 
under the boiler of a steam-engine, so force and heat 
are produced by the oxidation of food in the tissues of 
the body.i Starch slowly oxidized in the body gives 
off just as much heat and force as if burnt (z.e. rapidly 
oxidized) in the air. How is oxygen taken into the 
body? What combustible elements does starch con- 
tain? What other kinds of slow oxidation do you 
know of? (§§ 68 and 103.) Thus food serves as fuel 
to warm the body and to keep its machinery running, 
its oxidation, as in the case of other fuels, giving rise 
to carbon dioxide, water, and also to waste products 
corresponding to the ash of coal or wood. 

132. The body, unlike an engine, repairs itself. — A 

steam-engine differs from the body, however, in one 
important respect, — it cannot repair itself. No fuel we 

1 About one-third of the energy contained in the food we eat can 
be utilized in productive work; the other two-thirds is used up inter- 
nally in life processes. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 73 

can feed it with will stop a leak in the boiler or restore 
a missing rivet ; but food renews the tissues of the body 
as fast as they wear out, making bone, nerve, muscle, 
and skin for us continually. Then, too, in a steam- 
engine, fuel and air meet and unite in one place, 
whereas in the body combustion goes on in all its 
parts. 

133. Different kinds of foodstuffs serve the body in 
different ways ; for instance, starch cannot build 
tissue, but is efficient, first, as a force-producer, sec- 
ondly, as a heat-giver. Fat and oil have greater fuel 
value than starch has, because they contain a much 
smaller proportion of oxygen and so can unite with 
more. 

Experiment. — Throw a bit of butter or lard and a bit of starch 
into the fire. AVhich burns best ? 

Chemists are able to calculate exactly how much 
work a certain amount of starch or of other food will 
enable a man to do. 

Other kinds of starch and the manufacture of starch are de- 
scribed on p. 248 of Food Products of the World. Repeat at home 
the experiments given in this section. 

Section 3. Cereals; Simple Cereal Poods 

On either side the river lie 

Long fields of barley and of rye 

That clothe the wold and meet the sky. 

— Tennyson. 

134. Cereals, or grains, are grasses the seeds of 
which are used for food ; among the most important 



74 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

being wheat, Indian-corn or maize, oats, rice, rye, and 
barley. From these are prepared various breakfast 
foods, — oatmeal, wheatena, and others, besides corn- 
meal and other preparations sometimes served for 
breakfast. 

135. Cereals compared with potatoes. — Cereals, like 
potatoes, contain starch. How may we prove this? 
If they were like potatoes in other respects, they could 
be cooked in much the same way. Unlike potatoes, 
however, they do not contain nearly enough water to 
soften the starch, and must, therefore, be so cooked 
that they can absorb more. All except rice contain 
much woody fibre tougher tlian that in potatoes, and so 
need longer cooking. 

136. Breakfast cereals may he either boiled or dry- 
steamed. Steaming is the slower process, because the 
food in the upper part of the double boiler never quite 
reaches 212° F. ; but is preferable, since it insures even 
cooking of the cereal, prevents it from wasting or dry- 
ing on to the vessel, as it does when a saucepan is used, 
and makes stirring unnecessary. 

137. How to use a double boiler. — Fill the lower part 
(5, Fig. 9) one-tldrd full of boiling water, and keep it 
boiling. Add more boiling water from time to time, if 
needed to keep it one-third full. If allowed to stand 
over the fire, for even a short time, without water in 
the lower part, the boiler will become leaky and useless. 
Keep the two handles of the boiler in line, so that both 
parts may be readily lifted together. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 75 



See that both parts are dry before putting them away. 
A home-made double boiler may be contrived by setting 
one saucepan inside of another. 

Recipe for Whole Oatmeal (steamed) 

Oatmeal, 1 cupful. Salt, 1 teaspoonful. 

Water, 4 cupfuls. 

Put the water, with the salt, in the upper part of the 
double boiler, and set it directly over the heat. When 

it boils, stir in the oat- 
meal, put the two parts 
of the boiler together, 
and cook over night, or 
six hours by a day fire. 
Reheat in the morning. 
Or^ soak the oatmeal in 
the water for several 
Fig. 9. — Diagram of double boiler, hours, add the salt, and 
showing proper depth of water. , p ,^ ^ 

^ steam tor three hours. 

Recipe for Boiled Rice (to be served as a vegetable in place of 

potatoes) 

Rice, 1 cupful. Salt, 1 teaspoonful. 

Water, 2 quarts (or more). 

Put the water in a saucepan to boil. Pick over and 
wash the rice. When the water boils rapidly, drop in 
the rice — slowly^ so as not to stop the boiling. If the 
grains settle to the bottom, stir them gently with a 
fork. Boil rapidly, uncovered, from twenty to thirty 
minutes, or until the grains can be crushed between 




76 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

thumb and finger, adding the salt when nearly done. 
Then turn into a strainer to drain, rinse with hot 
water, and dry in the serving-dish in the oven (with the 
door open) for a few minutes. Each grain should be 
white, soft, and distinct, the motion of the water keeping 
them separate, and the washing and rinsing removing 
loose starch that Avould tend to stick them together. 

138. To wash rice. — Put it in a colander or strainer, 
and set this in a bowl of cold water ; rub the rice with 
the hands ; change the w^ater, repeating until it is clear. 

139. Steam-cooked cereals not economical. — Many ce- 
real preparations, including most of those sold in pack- 
ages, have been partially steam-cooked at the factory. 
This shortens the time required to prepare them for the 
table ; but, on the other hand, it injures their flavor, 
and adds to them a large quantity of water, for the 
weight of which the purchaser pays. As a fire kept 
up for other purposes can usually be utilized for cook- 
ing cereals, it is more economical to buy these uncooked. 

140. In good rice, the grains are yellowish white and 
wliole, with little starch-dust on them. Cornmeal and 
hominy spoil quickly ; purchase them in small quanti- 
ties. Keep cereals in jars or cans; in paper bags mice 
and insects may get to them. 

141. Fruit with cereals. — Try serving fruit with 
cereals : — 

1. Serve berries, apple sauce, sliced peaches, or sliced 
well-ripened bananas in the saucer with the mush. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 77 

2. Stir figs or dates cut in pieces, into mush before 
serving it. (Especially good with farina.) The mush 
may be moulded with the fruit in it. 3. Serve cold 
moulded cereals with peaches or bananas, sliced. 
(Plate y, facing p. 61.) 4. Serve baked bananas on 
separate plates. (For recipe see p. 233.) 

Directions for cooking Cereals 

142. 1. Stir the cereal gradually into the required 
quantity of boiling salted water, and cook over hot 
water until done. (See table on p. 79.) 

2. To save time and fuel, soak uncooked Cereals 
(Irish oats, cracked Avheat, hominy, etc.) in cold water 
before cooking. Those requiring more than one hour 
to cook should be cooked the day before they are to be 
eaten and reheated in the morning. If necessary to 
hasten the cooking of a cereal, boil it from fifteen to 
thirty minutes, tlien steam until done. 

3. Cook steam-cooked cereals, as a rule, twice as long 
as is directed on the package. Only hy long cooking are 
cereals made ivliolesome and tv ell-flavor ed ; undercooked, 
as most people eat them, they occasion sickness often laid 
to other causes. 

4. Stir coarse, flaky cereals as little as possible. 
Fine, granular cereals may be beaten. To keep these 
fine cereals from lumping, mix them with cold water 
instead of sprinkling them dry into boiling water. 

5. Cereals should absorb all the water they are 
cooked in ; if too moist when nearly done, cook un- 
covered for a time. 



78 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

6. To improve rice, farina, or hominy, stir in one- 
quarter of a cupful of milk about fifteen minutes before 
taking from the fire, and leave the cover off during 
the rest of the time. 

143. Food value of cereals. — Cereals are the most 
important of vegetable foods. From the plains of 
northern Europe and Asia, where barley grows in a 
climate too cold for other grains, to the rice-fields of 
India and our Southern states, man depends on some 
cereal for his daily bread. One reason for this is that 
they contain in varying proportions all the kinds of 
foodstuffs necessary to support life. Containing so 
much starch as they do (63 to 76 per cent), they are 
valuable chiefly as fuel foods. Oatmeal and cornmeal, 
having more fat than other grains, are especially good 
winter foods. Oatmeal is richer in food material, but 
on account of its indigestible fibre, less nutritious, 
except for strong, hard-working people, than other 
grains. Kice is almost pure starch ; as it contains no 
fat, we naturally eat butter or cream with it ; but this 
lack of fat makes it all the better for use in a tropical 
climate. 

Things to be remembered about Breakfast 
Cereals 

144. 1. It is better not to eat cereals at all than to 
eat them under-cooked. 

2. Have the mush stiff enough to be chewed. If too 
soft, it is swallowed without being mixed with saliva, 
and is, in consequence, less readily digested. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 



79 



3. Sugar, a heat-giver, is not needed with cereals ; 
milk and cream, on the other hand, supply fat and 
other substances, of which cereals have little. 



TABLE SHOWING TIME OF COOKING, AND PROPORTIONS 
OF SALT AND WATER, FOR BREAKFAST CEREALS 



Kind. 


ill 
m 


Cupfuls of 

Water 

to One Cupful of 

Cereal. 


Method 

of 
Cooking. 


Time of Cooking, 
in Hours. 


Oatmeal (Raw) . 


1 




Steam. 


If soaked, 3 ; if 
not, 6 or more. 


Oatmeal (Steam- 










cooked), Rolled 










Oats, H-0, etc. . 


1 


If 


Steam. 




Rice 




3 or more. 


Boil. 


i 


Rice 




2i 


Steam. 


1 


Wheat (Rolled and 










Steam-cooked) . 




n 


Steam. 


1 


Indian Meal . . 




16 


Boil. 


'if soaked, 3 ; if 
not, 6. 


Hominy .... 




4 


Steam. 


If soaked, 2; if 
not, 4. 


Wheaten Grits . . 




3 (or if soaked 
overnight in 
1 cup of cold 
water, add 2^ 
cups of boil- 


Steam. 


If soaked, 2 ; if 
not, 3. 


Farina and other 




ing water). 






fine Wheat Prep- 










arations . . . 


1 


3f 


Steam. 


1 to 3 



1 If the meal is sprinkled in dry, continue adding it 'until it begins 
to float ; after that, add no more. 



80 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Reading. — Chapter XVIII, Cereals, in Food Products of the 
World. (Drawings of stalks of rice and millet), pp. l-oO and 
36-39 in Foods and Beverages. Kice Culture, p. 66, in the Domestic 
Science Reader. 

For poetry, read "Hiawatha's Fasting" and "Blessing the 
Cornfields." Also see pictures illustrating grain shipping in Har- 
per's Weekly, October 9, 1897. (Vol. 41, pp. 1000 and 1001.) 

^Section 4. "Wheat, the King of Cereals 

When summer's hourly mellowing change 

May breathe, with many roses sweet, 

Upon the thousand waves of wheat 
That ripple round the lonely grange. — Tennyson. 

145. Wheat, being capable of cultivation in a greater 
variety of soils and climates than any other grain, and 
being also better suited for bread-making and for use 
as a constant article of diet, has been called " the King 
of Cereals." 

A Study of Wheat. Part I 

146. — A. Note the elliptical scar at the base of a wheat grain. 
This shows where the germ, or embryo, lies, from which the seed- 
ling springs. 

B. Crush a few grains of wheat, moisten them with boiling 
water, and test them for starch. 

If sprouted grains ^ be tested for starch, much of it 
will be found to have disappeared, and, under the 

1 Wheat and other cereals may be grown in earth or sawdust, or 
on moist blotting paper laid on a plate and covered with a glass jar 
or cheese-dish cover. 



FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 81 

microscope, the granules left will appear rough, as 
if eaten into. 

147. How the seedling is fed. — What has become of 
the starch ? A\^e have before seen that Nature is careful 
to provide food for baby plants. In what part of the 
potato plant is starch stored ? What connection is 
there between that part of the plant from which the 
young plant springs and the location of the food 
supply ? 

The plant, like the human body, cannot make use 
of starch until it is digested. In what does the diges- 
tion of starch consist? This digestion in grains is 
effected by diastase, a substance developed in the seed 
during sprouting. What animal substance do you 
know of that can effect this change ? 

148. Kinds of wheat. — Wheat is called winter wheat 
or spring wheat, according to whether it is best suited 
to being sown in autumn or in spring. Wheat that 
endures the cold and dampness of winter is soft and 
starchy ; wheat that comes up quickly in sunny spring 
weather is hard. Even spring wheat is soft in a rainy, 
cold season. These two sorts of wheat produce quite 
different kinds of flour, as you will learn in the next 
chapter. 

149. Harvesting. — Wheat ripens in our Southern 
states in early summer, in the most Northern states 
in the autumn. When the ears are heavy and golden, 
it is cut down and bound into shocks. The grains are 



82 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

threshed out of the husks and sent to market. Until 
recently this work was done mostly by hand, but now 
steam-reapers, binders, and threshers are common on 
the great farms in the wheat regions. 

Home-work. — Grow different kinds of grain at home in different 
ways ; make drawings of the seedlings in different stages of growth. 



CHAPTER III 

TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: EGGS AND MILK 

The palate is the janitor; unless he be conciliated, the most nutri- 
tious food will find no welcome. 

Section 1. Eggs; Albumin 

150. A hen's egg consists of shell, membrane, white, 
and yolk, the yolk being kept in place by two twisted 
cords of white. The little mass in the yolk is the 
embryo from which the chicken grows, just as the seed- 
ling grows from the embryo of the seed. The contents 
of the egg^ like the seed-contents, nourish the develop- 
ing embryo ; when ready to be hatched, the chick has 
absorbed all of these contents and part of the shell, the 
egg being a perfect food for an unhatched chicken, as 
starch is for a seedling. 

151. Why eggs spoil. — If not brooded, an egg loses 
water by evaporation through the pores in its shell, air 
enters to take the place of this, and the egg spoils. 
We may keep eggs good by keeping air out of them. 
Can you suggest any ways of doing this ? 

Selecting and Testing Eggs^ 

152. To tell whether an egg is fresh. — 1. Observe 
the shell. A fresh egg has a thick, rough shell. 2. Hold 

1 As some eggs are larger and heavier than others, it would be 
fairer to sell them by weight than by number. 

83 



84 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

the egg between your eye and the light. If clear and 
translucent, it is fresh ; if cloudy, it is stale. By egg 
dealers this test is made in a dark room with a candle, 
and it is then called " candling " eggs. 3. Drop the egg 
into cold water. If it sinks, it is fresh ; if it floats, it 
is stale. 4. Shake the egg^ holding it near your ear. 
If the contents move, it is somewhat stale ; if they 
rattle, it is spoiled. 

Think out the explanation of these tests. 

Directions for the Care and Preservation 
OF Eggs 

153. 1. Wash eggs with a damp cloth when they 
come into the house. The shells may be saved to clear 
coffee. 

2. Keep eggs in a cool, dry place. 

3. In spring or early summer, when eggs are plen- 
tiful and cheap, they may be preserved by packing 
them, small end down, in bran, sawdust, lime, or sand ; 
by immersing them in lime-Avater ; or by coating them 
with varnish or fat. Dealers sometimes keep eggs in 
cold storage several months. Preserved eggs may be 
combined with other materials in cooking, but only 
fresh ones are fit to serve plain, or in omelets and other 
egg dishes. 

154. Experiment to find out the best temperature for cooking 

6ggs. — Cook one egg (a) in boiling water for three minutes ; an- 
otiier (b) in boiling water for ten minutes ; put a third (c) into 
boiling water enough to cover it (about one pint in a small sauce- 
pan), remove the saucepan from the fire, and let it stand covered on 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: EGGS AND MILK 85 

the table from six to ten minutes. Break the eggs and compare their 
contents. In which is the white hard and the yolk unchanged? 
In which is the white hard and the yolk sticky or partly dry? In 
which is the white a tender jelly and the yolk thick? 

155. An egg put into boiling water and removed 
from the heat is, at the end of about ten minutes, 
evenly cooked through, the temperature of the water 
falling during this time to about 168° F. The tem- 
perature of the egg averages about 185° F. 

156. Experiment to show why eggs should be cooked below the 
boiling-point of water. — Put a little white-of-egg in a test-tube ; 
hold the test-tube and chemical thermometer in a vessel of water. 
Heat the water gradually. How does the white-of-egg look at 
150° F. ? At 180*^? Stir with glass rod or a stick to show degree of 
solidity. Note appearance and degree of solidity at 212°. Keep the 
water boiling for several minutes ; then take out some of the white- 
of-egg and examine it. 

Albumin 

157. Composition and food value of eggs. — The most 
important foodstuff in eggs is albumin (from albus, 
white), a sticky, glairy substance, found in both the 
white and the yolk. The white is nearly pure albumin 
and water ; the yolk contains much fat in the form of 
oil.i Eggs also contain a small quantity of valuable 
mineral salts. What important foodstuffs do eggs 
lack ? Name some foods that may be eaten with eggs 
to supply this lack. 

Albumin is a tissue -builder, the first foodstuffs we 
have learned about that contains nitrogen, the element 

1 For distinction between oil and fat see § 342. 



86 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

essential to tissue-building. Plants draw nitrogen from 
the soil ; animals obtain it from their food, neither 
being able to make use of it as it exists uncombined in 
the air. Foodstuffs containing nitrogen, also foods hav- 
ing a considerable amount of such foodstuffs, are called 
nitrogenous ; others are called non-nitrogenous. Potatoes 
contain a little albumin, distinguishable as froth on the 
water squeezed out in analyzing them. (§ 110.) 

Make a table showing the composition of eggs, similar 
to that showing the composition of potatoes on p. 62. 

158. Tests for albumin. — A common test for albumin 
is heat. If potato water or other albuminous liquid be 
boiled, the albumin can be recognized by its solidifying. 

159. The chemical test for nitrogenous substances is nitric 
acid, which turns albumin and other nitrogenous food- 
stuffs yellow. Being a dangerous liquid it must he used only 
by experienced persons. 

160. The solidifying of albumin is called coagulation. 
Have you known more substances to be changed from 
liquid to solid, or from solid to liquid, by heat ? 

161. Digestion of albumin; gastric juice. — The diges- 
tion of albumin begins in the stomach, which secretes 
for the purpose a fluid called gastric juice, containing 
pepsin and hydrochloric acid. These together change 
tissue-building foodstuffs, including albumin, into more 
soluble substances. 

Experiments to show how eggs are digested. — Label three test- 
tubes a, h, and c, respectively. Into a put about one teaspoonf ul of 
the finely chopped white of a hard-boiled egg ; into h an equal 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: EGGS AND MILK 87 

quantity of the chopped white of a soft-cooked egg (see recipe), 
and into c a piece of hard-boiled white, not chopped. Half fill 
the test-tubes with pepsin and dilute hydrochloric acid,^ and set 
them in warm water (about 98° F.). 

At the end of an hour and a half examine them. In which has 
the white-of -egg been most rapidly dissolved, i.e. digested? After 
five or six hours look at them again. If any of the egg is still 
undigested set it aside and look at it again the next day. Does 
white-of-egg digest more quickly in one piece or when chopped ? 
What do we learn from this about chewing food ? Which digests 
more quickly, hard-boiled or soft-cooked albumin ? 

TABLE SHOWING EFFECT OF HEAT ON ALBUMIN 2 



Degree of Heat. 


Appearance. 


Digestibility. 


Raw. 


Clear, sticky, pale 
straw-colored liquid. 


Quickly and easily 
digestible. 


Heated to 134^ F. 


Fine threads 

of semi-solid white 

substance 

appear in liquid. 


Still readily digestible. 


Heated to 160° F. 


Tender, white jelly. 


Readily digestible. 


Heated to 212° F. 


Tough, white jelly. 


Less easily and quickly 
digestible. 


Heated to 300° F., 
or higher. 


Hard, horny substance. 


" Indigestible " ; i.e. 
digested with difficulty. 



1 A digestive juice similar to that in the stomach may be made from 
1.1 parts of pepsin and 7.5 parts of hydrochloric acid to 500 parts of 
water. 

2 Yolk albumin coagulates at a lower temperature than white albu- 
min. In a " three-minute " boiled egg, however, the white is hard and 
the yolk nearly or quite raw, the heat not having had time to penetrate 
to the centre of the egg. 



88 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

162. It has been found that eggs cooked at 180° can be 
completely digested by artificial means in five hours, while 
boiled eggs take longer. It is probable that the same is true 
of their digestion in the stomach. 

Recipes 

SOFT-COOKED EgGS 

For two4i^iiF6 allow one pint of water; for each addi- 
tional egg three-fourths of a cupful of water additional. 
Put the water in a saucepan, let it come to the boiling- 
point, lower the eggs into it with a spoon, remove at 
once from the fire, and let stand covered about ten min- 
utes. The fewer the number of eggs to be cooked, the 
smaller should be the saucepan, in order that the smaller 
quantity of water may cover them. 

163. To toast bread. — Cut stale bread (at least two 
days old) into slices one-third of an inch thick. Trim 
off the crusts, leaving the slices rectangular; lay the 
bread in a toaster, and hold over a bright coal fire, turn- 
ing frequently in order that both sides may brown alike. 
Hold the bread well above the fire at first, to dry it; 
then nearer, until both sides are an even golden brown. 

Tt may be buttered at once, but is more wholesome if 
buttered as it is eaten. Serve on a doily on a hot plate, 
uncovered. 

For water toast dip the toasted slices quickly into 
boiling salted water (half a teaspoonful of salt to one 
cupful of water), using a fork. Spread with softened 
butter 1 and serve at once. 

1 To soften butter work it with a spoon or knife, — in cold weather in 
a warmed bowl. 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: EGGS AND MILK 89 

Eggs dropped on Toast (Plate VII, facing p. 102) 

Prepare squares or circles (cut with a muffin ring) 
of water toast ; arrange on a platter. On each break 
carefully a soft-cooked egg^ keeping the yolk whole 
and in the centre of the slice of toast ; sprinkle a little 
salt, and if you like, a tiny bit of white pepper, on each 
yolk, and serve. 

164. How to break eggs. — To break an egg, hold it 
in the left hand and crack the shell by striking it 
sharply with a knife ; then put your thumbs together at 
the crack, and gently break the shell apart. (Plate VI.) 

To separate the yolk from the white, hold the egg up- 
right while breaking the shell apart, so that the yolk 
will remain in one half of the shell : slip the yolk from 
one piece of shell to the other several times, letting the 
white run over the edge into a bowl or plate. Caution. 
— When using several eggs, if you are not sure of their 
freshness, break each singly into a cup, and examine it 
before adding it to the rest. 

165. Beating eggs ; distinction between beating, stirring 
and folding. — Beat yolks in a bowl with a fork or a 
Dover beater ; beat whites in a bowl with a Dover 
beater, or on a deep plate or platter with a fork or wire 
whisk. Whites are beaten stiff when a knife-cut made 
in the mass does not close ; dri/, when the gloss is gone 
from them, and flaky bits fly off as you beat. Yolks 
well beaten are thick and much lighter colored than 
before beating. 



90 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Eggs are beaten slightly (i.e. until the white and 
yolk are mingled) to make them smooth and creamy, 
for French omelet, custards, and some sauces. They 
are beaten till light to entangle air in fine bubbles in 
the albumin. Can you beat in more air by beating the 
whole Qgg or by beating the white separately from the 
yolk ? To heat with a spoon or fork, carry it swiftly 
through the material, tilting the dish so that the mate- 
rial will be " flopped " over at each stroke. To stir^ 
move the spoon steadily in a widening circle. To fold 
one ingredient into another, put the spoon in edgewise, 
lift the ingredients, and turn them over ; repeat until 
thoroughly mixed. Avoid stirring after heating or fold- 
ing. Why ? 

Recipes 
Eggs in a Nest (Plate VII) 

Separate the white of an Qgg from the yolk. Beat 
the white stiff and dry ; put it in a cup or small bowl, 
making in the top of it a hollow the size of the yolk ; 
into this hollow slip the yolk. Cook in a covered 
saucepan containing boiling water until the top of the 
white is firm (about two minutes). Serve in the cup. 

French Omelet 

Eggs, 4. Salt, }4 ^o H teaspoonful. 

Water, 4 tablespoonfuls. Pepper, a few grains. 

Butter, 1 tablespoonful. 

Beat the eggs lightly (about twelve strokes with a 
fork), add water, salt, and pepper. Melt the butter in 
a hot omelet-pan without letting it brown. Turn in 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: EGGS AND MILK 91 

the eggs, shake pan gently, and as the eggs thicken lift 
it lightly with a fork or knife, letting the uncooked 
part run underneath. The omelet should slip on the pan 
without sticking anywhere. When creamy all through, 
roll it up, rolling toward the left side of the pan. Hold 
a hot platter over the edge of the pan, and turn pan 
and platter over, so that the omelet will fall in the cen- 
tre of the platter ; or lift it out on two broad knives. 
Garnish with parsle}^, and serve at once ; if it stands, it 
will fall. 

The omelet is puffed up with steam from the mois- 
ture in the eggs and the water added to them. What 
happens to steam when it cools? What will be the 
effect on the omelet? 

Fancy omelets. — French Omelet may have spread over 
it before it is folded a rounded teaspoonful of fine-cut 
parsley, a few teaspoon fuls of chopped ham or other 
cooked meat, or of grated cheese ; or cooked, chopped 
oysters or clams may be used, or peas or tomatoes, — 
almost any cooked food, in fact, this being a good way 
to utilize " left-overs." These fancy omelets are named 
according to the ingredient added. Cheese Omelet, Ham 
Omelet, etc. Have the filling hot when put into the 
omelet. 

Cup Custards 

Scalded milk, 1 quart. Sugar, yi cupful. 

Eggs, 4 to 6. Salt, % teaspoonful. 

Nutmeg. 

Beat the eggs slightly, stir in the sugar and salt, 
then, slowly, the hot milk. When the sugar has dis- 



92 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

solved, pour into cups (about six), and grate a little 
nutmeg over each cup. Set the cups in a pan of hot 
water, and bake in a moderate oven until a pointed 
knife inserted in the custards comes clean. Do not let 
the water in the pan boil. Why? 

Reading. — "Poultry and Eggs," American Kitchen Magazine, 
April, 1900. Vol. XIII, No. 1. P. 114, in Foods and Beverages. 

Section 2. Milk and other Dairy Products 

166. What the seed is for the seedling, and the Qgg 
for the unhatched chick, milk is for the young of milk- 
giving animals, — that is, a perfect food. Why it 
comes nearer than eggs do to being a perfect food for 
any human being we shall see when we have found 
out its composition. 

A Study of Milk 

167. — Analysis of milk ; experiments. — A. With a spoon remove 
the cream from one pint of milk that has stood over night. Drop 
a little of the cream on unglazed paper. Examine the paper after 
it has dried for a time. Can you tell from the spot one foodstuff 
that is present in milk ? 

B. Test a little of the milk with iodine. Is there any starch 
in milk? 

C. Boil the rest of the milk. What do you see on the top of 
it? What do you think this scum is? Is there water in milk? 
Air? How do you know? 

D. Remove the albuminous scum and put a little of the milk 
in a test-tube. Add a few drops of vinegar. What happens? 
Strain the milk through a cloth, and examine the solid substance 
{curd) and the watery liquid (wheg). 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: EGGS AND MILK 93 

E. Shake a little white-of-egg and water together in a test- 
tube ; add a few drops of vinegar, and note the coagulation. 

168. If a drop of nitric acid be added to milk, what 
result would you expect ? What would this show ? 

169. Composition of milk. — Cow's milk contains fat, 
albumin, and another substance that is not coagulated 
by heat, but is coagulated by vinegar. This substance 
is casein,^ a tissue-builder. What element must it con- 
tain ? What other tissue-builder can you name ? Coag- 
ulated casein, when dried, is a hard, horny, yellow solid. ^ 
Dissolved in the whey is a little milk-sugar and mineral 
matter. Sugar closely resembles starch in composition, 
and, like it, is energy-producing. What elements does 
it contain ? 

170. Its food value. — Milk is seen to contain one or 
more of each of the chief kinds of foodstuffs, tissue- 
building, heat-giving, and strength-giving ; besides 
water and mineral matter. For the calf it is a perfect 
food, and almost perfect for a human baby. For older 
people, however, it is not a well-balanced food, i.e. 
these foodstuffs are not in the right proportions. 
There is not enough sugar to give the strength a 
grown man needs for his work, and there is so much 
water that he would have to drink an enormous quantity 
of milk to obtain the necessary quantity of foodstuffs. 

1 The albumin is in true solution, the casein in partial solution 
only. In this state it is called by chemists caseinogen (casein-maker). 

2 It can be so toughened as to resemble celluloid, in which state 
it is made into buttons and similar articles. 



94 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Mention some foods commonly eaten with milk. What 
foodstuff or foodstuffs, lacking in milk, do these foods 
supply ? Remember that milk is food, not drink merely ; 
less of other food is needed at a meal with which milk 
is drunk. Drink it slowly. It is more readily digested 
when taken in sips. 

171. Buying milk; dangers of cheap milk. — Good milk 
is a yellowish white, opaque liquid, having a slightly 
sweet taste. It should have no sediment and should 
not look blue around the edges. Skim milk sells for 
about one-half the price of whole milk. It is, of course, 
poor in fat, but is richer than whole milk in casein and 
albumin, and may be used instead of it for many pur- 
poses in cooking. Skim milk is far more desirable and 
economical than so-called whole milk sold at less than 
the regular market-price. This is likely either to be 
of poor quality, perhaps colored to make it look rich, or 
to be watered, in which case a quart of it may contain 
no more nourishment than a pint of " honest " milk. 

172. Care of milk. — Milk quickly absorbs tastes, 
odors, and impurities. It is more liable than almost 
any other food to contain disease germs. From the 
time it is drawn from the cow it should be kept in clean 
vessels (glass, earthenware, or bright tin ; not wood), 
in a cool, clean place. Otherwise it rapidly sours, and 
sometimes undergoes changes that make it actually 
poisonous. Milk sold from open cans in cities is more 
likely than bottled milk to contain dirt, and to sour 
quickly. 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: EGGS AND MILK 95 

173. Scalding milk. — To make sure that milk is safe 
for use, especially for children, who are most likely to 
be made sick b}^ impure milk, scald it (i.e. heat it to 
about 160° F.). This is best done in a double boiler. ^ 
When small bubbles appear at the edge of the milk it 
is scalded. Use when cool. Boiling makes it less di- 
gestible. What substance in the milk should never be 
heated to the boiling-point ? Explain why milk tum- 
blers should not be put directly into hot water. 

A Study of Milk {continued) 

174. Souring of milk. — F. Examine sour milk. Notice the 
separation of the curd from the whey. What* substance, added to 
milk, makes it separate like this ? Taste the sour milk. Does it 
taste at all like vinegar? 

The sour taste of the milk is caused by the presence 
of an acid. When milk is kept at the ordinary tem- 
perature more than a few hours the sugar in it changes 
to lactic acid (milk acid). This acid, like the acid in 
vinegar, coagulates casein. 

175. The change from sugar to lactic acid is caused by 
certain bacteria (bacilli of lactic acid) that get into milk from 
the air. (§ 446.) 

Recipe for Cottage Cheese 

Thick sour milk, 1 quart. Salt, X teaspoonful. 

Butter, 2 teaspoonfuls. Cream, enough to make cheese 

as moist as desired. 

Heat the milk in a pan set on the back of the stove, 
or into another pan of hot water ; as soon as the curd 

1 For directions for pasteurizing milk, see §§ 466 and 469. 



96 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

separates from the whey, strain the milk through a 
cloth. Squeeze the curd in the cloth until rather dry. 
Put it in a bowl, and with a spoon mix it to a smooth 
paste with the butter, salt, and cream. Serve lightly 
heaped up. 

176. Action of rennet on milk. — A different kind of 
coagulation of casein is produced by rennet, a substance 
prepared from the lining of a calf's stomach. Rennet 
is sold for use either in an alcohol solution ("liquid 
rennet ") or in tablets. 

Recipe for Rennet Custard or Slip 

Milk, 1 quart. Extract of vanilla, 1 tea- 

Sugar, X cupful. spoonful. 

Liquid rennet, 1 tablespoonful, 
or 
1 rennet tablet dissolved in 1 tablespoonful of water. 

Heat the milk in a double boiler until it is luke- 
warm. Add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved. 
Stir in the vanilla and rennet, and pour into a glass 
dish. Let it stand in a warm room until it begins to 
thicken ; then set it in a cool place, and leave it until it 
is firm. Sprinkle with one-eighth teaspoonful of cinna- 
mon or nutmeg, and serve with cream (or milk) and 
sugar. 

To make Coffee Rennet Custard, use two and three- 
fourths cupfuls of milk and add one and one-fourth 
cupfuls of strong, cold coffee after taking from fire. 
Use one-fourth to one-half cupful of sugar. 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: MILK AND EGGS 97 

177. Does the curd formed by rennet differ in any- 
way from that formed by an acid ? If so, how ? Does 
curdling make milk sour, or does souring make it 
curdle ? 

178. Digestion of milk. — Rennin, the ferment that gives 
rennet its power to coagulate milk, is secreted by the human 
stomach as by the calf s stomach, to aid in digesting milk. 

By its action the nitrogenous parts of the milk are sepa- 
rated from the rest, that they may be acted on by pepsin, 
while the fat and sugar pass on to be digested in the intes- 
tine. (Digestion of Albumin.) 

BUTTER 

179. Fat naturally exists in milk in little spheres or 
globules about Yb'^'5 ^^ '^^ inch in diameter. When fat 
or oil is suspended in this way in a liquid it is said to 
be emulsified. 

Experiment to illustrate emulsion. — Shake some lime-water and 
linseed oil together in a bottle ; hold the bottle still and observe 
the oil globules rise. 

180. Milk under the microscope. — Look at a drop of milk 
through a microscope, then at a drop of cream. Which has the 
greater number of fat globules ? Make memory drawings of what 
you see. 

181. The fat globules, being lighter than the rest of 
the milk, tend to rise to the top as cream. If cream be 
vigorously beaten or churned, the globules lose their 
shape and stick together, forming butter. Some of the 
casein clings to them. This is usually washed out, as 
it decomposes easily. Butter is salted to further pro- 



98 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

tect it from spoiling. It is usually packed in wooden 
tubs for market. Butter moulded in " prints " for im- 
mediate table use is made less salt than tub butter. 
" Sweet " butter contains no salt and sells at a high 
price. 

182. Economy in buying and using butter. — Good 
butter has about eighty -seven per cent of fat ^ is firm, not 
crumbly, yields little water when pressed, and foams 
when heated. It is wiser to economize by using some 
less expensive fat, such as beef fat, in cooking, than to 
buy a poor grade of butter because it is cheap. So- 
called " cooking-butter " is often an imitation of butter, 
or rancid (spoiled) butter, worked over and unfit to be 
eaten. 

Milk from grass-fed cows makes rich, yellow butter. 
Winter butter comes white, and is usually colored for 
market with anatto, a substance obtained from the seeds 
of a tropical plant. Sour cream makes the finest-fla- 
vored butter. 

183. Experiment to illustrate butter-making. — Put 

half a cupful of thick cream into a small bowl and 
beat it with a Dover egg-beater until it separates into 
buttermilk and specks of butter. Gather the butter 
into a lump, and after pressing out as much of the 
buttermilk as you can, wash the butter under a stream 
of cold water. Work with a wooden spoon to remove 
the water, and add a few grains of salt. Dip butter- 
spatters into hot water, then into cold, and with them 
roll the butter into a ball. (Plate VI, facing p. 89.) 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: MILK AND EGGS 99 

184. Butter as food. — Does butter rank as tissue- 
builder, strength-giver, or heat-giver? Name some of 
the foods with which butter is commonly eaten. Does 
it supply anything that these foods lack? If so, what? 
Do you need as much butter with corn bread as with 
white bread ? As much when you eat bacon for break- 
fast as when you eat lean meat? 

Recipe for Whipped Cream 

Cream, ^ pint. Powdered sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls. 
Extract of vanilla, %. to % teaspoonful. 

If the cream is thicker than ordinary milkman's 
cream, dilute with milk, or it will turn to butter when 
whipped. Whip it with a wire whisk or a Dover 
beater until stiff enough to hold its shape, beat in the 
sugar and vanilla, and keep in a cool place till served. 
In warm weather, set the bowl of cream in a pan of 
cracked ice while whipping it. Serve on hot chocolate, 
or as a sauce with desserts. 

CHEESE 

185. Cheese is the curd of milk, drained, salted, and 
pressed. Cheese made from unskimmed milk is about 
one-half fat, the fat globules being entangled in the 
curd. Skimmed milk cheese is sometimes '^ filled " by 
having lard or other cheap fat added to it. "Filled" 
cheese is greasy when warm, has little flavor, and does 
not keep well. Neufchatel and other cream cheeses are 
made from milk to which cream has been added. 

LofC. 



100 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

186. Food value of cheese. — Cheese, like eggs, is a 
food containing much nourishment in small bulk, — a 
concentrated food. It should be used more commonly 
than it is. Cheese may take the place of meat, maca- 
roni cooked with cheese being hearty enough to form 
the main dish of a meal. (Recipe on p. 121.) One 
pound of cheese contains as much nutriment as two 
pounds of meat. Unfortunately, it is somewhat diffi- 
cult of digestion, and for this reason should not be 
eaten by delicate persons or by young children. For 
healthy people, particularly for men engaged in active 
work, it is one of the best of foods. 

Which one of the three kinds of foodstuffs does 
cheese lack almost entirely? Name some foods suit- 
able to be eaten with cheese. 

Recipes 

Cheesed Crackers 

Crackers (zephyrettes), 6. 

Grated cheese, about 6 rounded teaspoonfuls. 

Cayenne pepper, a few grains. 

Butter. 

Butter zephyrettes lightly, spread with cheese and 
cayenne well mixed, and heat on a pan in a hot oven 
till the cheese melts. 

Cheese Fondue 

Bread crumbs, 1 cupful. Eggs, 2 yolks, 3 whites. 

Milk, Yz cupful. Butter, % cupful. 

Grated cheese, 4 tablespoonfuls. Salt, ^ teaspoonful. 

Pepper, a few grains. 



TISSUE-BUILDING FOODS: MILK AND EGGS 101 

(^Butter a hakiyig-dish.') 

Cook bread crumbs and milk together, stirring until 
hot and smooth ; add butter, cheese, salt, and pepper, 
cook one minute longer, and remove from the fire. 
Beat yokes and whites separately, the whites till stiff 
and dry. Mix the yolks thoroughly into the cheese 
mixture, and fold in the whites. Bake in baking-dish 
in hot oven fifteen or twenty minutes; when firm to 
the touch, the fondue is done. Serve at once in the 
same dish. 

Baked in ramekin dishes, this mixture forms Cheese 
Ramekins. 

Perhaps you would like to write a composition about milk. You 
can learn more about it in Food and Beverages, pp. 66-79 and 83- 
87. Pamphlets written for grown people, but not hard to under- 
stand, are Facts about Milk and Butter-making on the Farm, printed 
as Farmers' Bulletins, Nos. 42 and 57, by the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D.C. (Sent free.) 



CHAPTER I 
BREAD 
Section 1. Quick Breads; Baking-powders 

Cookery is become an art, a noble science. 

187. Heretofore the dishes that you have cooked 
have consisted of one principal ingredient, with small 
quantities of others added to make this more palatable. 
In cooking you have had to consider the nature of but 
one, or at the most two, of the foodstuffs of which the 
principal ingredient was composed. What foodstuff 
did you consider in cooking eggs ? In cooking cereals ? 

In this chapter you are to deal with mixtures of 
several kinds of food-material, and success will depend 
upon your understanding of the properties of each of 
the materials you use, and upon your care in measur- 
ing, mixing, and baking them. 

188. Quick breads include biscuits, muffins, griddle 

cakes, and the like. They are so called to distinguish 

them from ^east-breads^ which require a longer time for 

preparation. 

Recipe for Popovers 

Flour, 1 cupful. Salt, % teaspoonful. 

Milk, 1 cupful. Eggs, 2. 

(^Set the 2^ op over cups 07i the stove to heat.^ 

102 



PLATE VII. 




Egg in a Nest, and Dropped Egg on Toast garnished with 
Parsley, 




Popover 



Muffin 
Quick Breads. 



Biscuit 




French Loaves, Finger Rolls, and French Rolls, with 
Baking-pans for Each. 



BREAD 103 

Put the flour iu a bowl ; make a well in the centre of 
it ; drop in the salt, then the unbeaten eggs. Add the 
milk gradually, stirring in widening circles from the 
centre. Bake in buttered muffin-pans, or in earthen 
cups, in a hot oven for thirty minutes. 

189. To grease baking-pans. — Melt the butter or other 
fat, and with a bit of soft paper, or a brush kept for this 
purpose, apply it evenly to the pan, being careful to 
grease the corners carefully. 

190. The uncooked popover mixture is called batter. 
Popovers are made light by the expansion of the water 

in them as it is changed to steam by the heat of the 
oven, the heat at the same time forming a crust, which 
keeps the steam from escaping. When done the pop- 
overs should be crisp, hollow shells, several times the 
height of the batter, and well "popped-over." (Plate 

VII.) 

Recipe for Griddle Cakes 

Flour, 2 cupfuls. Salt, Yz teaspoonful. 

Baking-soda, 1 teaspoonful. Sour milk, 2 cupfuls. 

Eggs, 1. 

(Put the griddle where it will he hot hy the time the 
cakes are mixed.} 

Sift the flour, salt, and baking-soda together. Beat 
the eggs well. Stir the milk into the flour. Add the 
beaten egg, and beat all together until well mixed. 
Bake by spoonfuls on a hot greased griddle.^ When 

1 Beat the batter well before pouring a fresh batch of cakes on to 
the griddle. 



104 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

the cakes are full of bubbles on top, and brown on one 
side, turn them over with a broad knife or a cake-turner, 
and brown them on the other side. If large bubbles 
rise at once to the top of the cakes, the griddle is too 
hot. If the top of the cake stiffens before the under 
side is brown, the griddle is not hot enough. Never 
turn a cake twice ; a twice turned cake will be heavy. 

Serve the cakes as soon as they are baked, piled (not 
more than six or eight together) on a hot plate. Eat 
them with butter, butter and syrup, or butter and sugar. 

In making griddle cakes with sweet milk, omit soda, and 
add two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and one table- 
spoonful of melted butter. 

191. To grease the griddle. — Use a piece of beef-suet 
on a fork, or drippings applied with a swab made by 
tying a strip of clean cloth around the end of a fork or 
skewer. Leave no spot ungreased, but do not have 
more than just enough grease to keep the cakes from 
sticking. If they should stick, scrape the griddle clean 
before greasing it again. A soapstone griddle must never 
he greased, 

A Study of the Leavening Power of Baking- 
soda 

192. What makes griddle-cake batter light ? 

Experiments with soda and acids. — A. Put a pinch of soda into 
a little sour milk. Put another pinch into vinegar. Observe the 
results in both cases. 

B. Arrange an apparatus like that shown in Fig. 10. What 
change takes place in the lime-water? What gas is being formed? 



BREAD 



105 



193. Baking-soda is one of a class of substances called 
carbonates. When an acid is added to a carbonate in 
the presence of water carbon di- 
oxide is formed, producing effer- 
vescence. Is this a physical or a 
chemical change ? How do you 
know ? 




Fig. 10. — Apparatus for 
testing for carbon di- 
oxide. 

Test-tube (J) containing' soda- 
solution with a little vinegar. 
Glass tube connected with 
t dips into lime-water con- 
tained in glass {g). 



194. Batter made light by carbon 
dioxide produced by union of an 
acid with a carbonate. — The car- 
bon dioxide formed in the batter 
from the union of the baking- 
soda and the acid in the sour 
milk expands when heated, mak- 
ing the griddle cakes light and 
porous. Moreover, although made 
with sour milk, the cakes are not 
sour ; by an experiment we can find out if the soda has 
anything to do with this. 

195. Experiments with acids and alkalies. — A. Add a little sal- 
soda solution to water in which red cabbage has been boiled.^ 
What change in color takes place ? Try adding ammonia, a drop 
of soapsuds, and baking-powder solution to the cabbage water. 
What effect do they have ? 

In general, substances that turn cabbage water green 
are termed alkalies. Baking-soda is an alkaline car- 
bonate. Taste it. Its slightly soapy taste indicates its 
similarity to the alkalies used in cleaning. ^ 

1 Or use red and blue litmus paper for testing. Alkalies turn red 
litmus blue ; acids turn blue litmus red. 

2 Chemists call washing-soda sodium carbonate^ and baking-soda 
mono-sodium carbonate. 



106 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

196. Experiment B. — Try the effect of vinegar and of sour 
milk upon cabbage water. 

Substances that turn cabbage water violet are (or 
contain) acids. 

197. Neutralization. — Acids and alkalies have the 
power of neutralizing each other (i.e. of destroying each 
other's characteristic i)roperties). If exactly the right 
amounts of soda and of sour milk are used, the batter 
will be neutral ; that is, it will not turn cabbage water 
either green or violet, and will taste of neither acid, nor 
soda. (Test some of the batter left in the bowl.) 

To one pint of thick, recently soured milk use one tea- 
spoonful of baking-soda. The more acid the milk is, the 
more soda it requires. Bitter or mouldy sour milk is 
unfit to be used. 

Batters and Doughs 

198. Quick-bread mixtures are either batters or 
doughs. Dough means " that which is moistened " ; 
batter means "that which is beaten." 

One measure of liquid with one to one and a half 
measures of flour makes a thin or pour-batter. 

One measure of liquid to two measures or a little 
more of flour makes a thick or drop-batter. 

A mixture stiff enough to be handled on a board is a 
dough. 

One measure of liquid to two and two-thirds meas- 
ures of flour makes a soft dough. 

One measure of liquid to three or more measures of 
flour makes a stiff dough. 



BREAD 107 

What kind of a batter is the popover mixture? 
What kind of a mixture will the recipe for biscuit 
make ? 

199. Ingredients; means of lightening; shortening. — 
A mixture of flour and water or flour and milk alone 
would be, when cooked, hard and indigestible. We 
have found that the introduction of carbon dioxide 
makes it light and porous, and that, in a watery batter 
cooked by intense heat, the steam produced puffs the 
batter up. Eggs are used to stiffen batters. Either 
the eggs, or the batter after the eggs are mixed with it, 
is in most cases well beaten, in order to fill the mixture 
with air, which, expanding, makes it light. (See Muffin 
Recipes.) With very glutinous flour (§§ 205 and 214) 
eggs are unnecessary except to make the bread richer. 
Fat shortens bread, i.e. makes it more tender by sepa- 
rating the starch-grains of the flour. Butter gives a 
fine flavor ; beef fat is less expensive than butter and 
in many cases serves equally well ; the peculiar greasy 
flavor of lard makes it less desirable than either of 
these. ^ 

Recipe for Tea-biscuit 

Flour, 2 cupfuls. Salt, % teaspoonful. 

Baking-powder, 3 teaspoonfuls. Butter, 1 tablespoonful. 

Milk (or milk and water), about ^ cupful. 

Sift the flour, baking-powder, and salt together. 
Rab in the butter (which should be cold and firm) 
with the tips of the fingers, or cut it with a knife, until 

1 When substituting lard or beef fat for butter, add one-eighth tea- 
spoonful of salt for each two tablespoonfuls of shortening. 



108 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

the mixture looks like meal. Pour in the milk slowly, 
cutting, not stirring, the mass with the knife. As 
soon as one portion of the flour becomes slightly 
moistened, push it to one side. When all is moist turn 
it on to a floured board. Knead it for a minute with 
the hands. Pat and roll it lightly with a rolling-pin 
to a thickness of three-fourths of an inch. Cut into 
biscuit with a small biscuit-cutter dipped in flour. 
Bake on a pan from twelve to fifteen minutes in a hot 
oven. 

For richer biscuits use from two tablespoonfuls to 
one-fourth cupful of butter. 

A Study of Baking-powder 

200. Experiments with baking-powder. — A. Taste baking- 
powder. Test it with cabbage water (§ 195). How would you 
describe it? 

B. Add two tablespoonfuls of cold water to one teaspoonful of 
baking-powder; two tablespoonfuls of hot water to another tea- 
spoonful of baking-powder. Which foams the most ? What kind 
of bubbles do you think these are? 

C. Arrange an apparatus like that in Fig. 10. Use a cold- 
water solution of baking-powder instead of vinegar and baking- 
soda. Test for carbon dioxide. When the gas ceases to come off, 
heat the test-tube gently, and observe the result. 

Explain how biscuit are made light. Is heat necessary to make 
all the gas come off? What would be the effect on the biscuit if 
hot milk were used in mixing the dough ? 

D. Taste cream of tartar. Test it with cabbage water, or with 
litmus. What kind of a substance is it? 

E. Try to dissolve cream of tartar in cold water ; in hot water. 
Try to dissolve baking-soda in cold water ; in hot water. What 
can you say of the solubility of baking-soda ? 



BREAD 109 

F. Mix one-half teaspoonful of baking-soda with two teaspoon- 
fuls of cream of tartar, and taste the mixture. Add water to the 
mixture (or, make separate solutions of soda and of cream of 
tartar, and pour one into the other). Compare the result with 
what happened when water was added to baking-powder. Of what 
do you think baking-powder is composed ? 

G. Test the mixed solution with cabbage water. If it is not 
neutral, try to make it so by adding either soda or cream of tartar, 
;i little at a time. 

201. What bakings-powder is; how it makes mixtures 
light. — Pure cream of tartar baking-powder contains 
one part of baking-soda to four parts of cream of tar- 
tar.i In solution these unite, forming carbon dioxide 
and Rochelle salts. ^ Cream of tartar being partly sol- 
uble only without heat, little of the gas is set free until 
the mixture is put into the oven.^ It then comes off 

1 Two teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar and half a teaspoonful of 
baking-soda are equal to about three teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. 
When pure baking-powder can be obtained, it is wiser, as well as more 
convenient, to use it ; because the housekeeper cannot proportion the 
soda and cream of tartar as accurately as does the manufacturing 
chemist, and any excess of either is not only wasted, but may be in- 
jurious to the health. Soda, since it gives off some carbon dioxide 
when wet, even if no acid is present, might be used alone to lighten 
bread, did it not when so used make the bread yellow, unpalatable, and 
unwholesome. Baking-soda is made by passing carbon dioxide over 
ordinary sal-soda. Cream of tartar is an acid salt prepared from the 
crystals called "argols" that form on the inside of wine-vats and 
wine-casks. 

2 Rochelle salts is a soluble, white powder, harmless in small quan- 
tities. 

3 Enough moisture to start this action is, however, readily absorbed 
by the baking-powder from the air. A little cornstarch is therefore 
added by the manufacturer to take up moisture and keep the powder 
dry. A solution of baking-powder may be tested for a starch (a) by 
boiling and (6) with iodine. 



110 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

rapidly, filling the batter or dough with bubbles, and 
making it rise higher and higher. As the gas expands, 
the walls of the bubbles stretch and become thin. Just 
at this stage, if the oven is right, the heat sets the mix- 
ture and imprisons the gas. In too hot an oven a crust 
forms before all the gas is set free ; in too cool an oven 
the bubbles break and the gas escapes. In either case 
the result is heav}^ bread. 

Use one to one and one-half teaspoonfuls of baking-pow- 
der to one cupful of flour. If more than this is required, 
the baking-powder is of poor quality. The more air 
there is beaten into the mixture, the smaller will be the 
quantity of baking-powder required. Bread or cake 
made with " generous " measures of baking-powder is 
dry, and owing to the excess of Rochelle salts produced, 
unwholesome. 



Helpful Hints about mixing and baking Quick 
Breads 

202. 1. As a rule sift the baking-powder with the 
flour ; in a very thin batter it may be sprinkled in after 
the other ingredients have been mixed, provided the 
whole mixture is then well beaten. 

2. A quick bread should be quickly mixed, and put 
into the oven without delay. This is most important in 
the case of thin batters, those raised wholly with air, 
and those raised by using soda and sour milk, or any 
other liquid acid, which sets free at once almost all the 
available gas. 



BREAD 111 

3. The proper degree of heat for baking must be 
learned by experience. In general, doughs require a 
hotter oven than batters do. Too great heat causes 
bubbles of air or gas to burst and run together, which 
is undesirable when a fine-grained bread is desired. 
Popovers, when baked, should be hollow shells. Bake 
these, therefore, in a hot oven. 

4. Set the pan at first on the bottom of the oven ; 
after the bread has risen it may be placed on the rack 
to brown the top. 

5. Open and close the oven door gently — " as if there 
were a baby inside," — and avoid moving the pan while 
the bread is rising. A draft of cold air will cause the 
bubbles to collapse ; a sudden jar will break them. In 
either case the bread will fall. 

Recipes ^ 

Plain Muffins 

Flour, 2 cupfuls. Salt, yi teaspoonful. 

Baking-powder, 3 teaspoonfuls. Butter, 1 tablespoonful. 
Milk, about 3^ of a cupful. 

Mix and sift the flour, baking-powder, and salt. Stir 
in enough milk to make a drop-batter, beat well, and 
add the butter melted. Bake about twenty minutes. 

Egg Muffins 

Flour, lyi cupfuls. Milk, 1 cupful. 

Baking-powder, 2 teaspoonfuls. Eggs, 1. 

Salt, Yi teaspoonful. Melted butter, 1 tablespoonful. 



112 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Mix and sift the dry ingredients. Separate the egg; 
beat the yolk slightly, the white to a stiff froth. Stir 
the milk, beaten yolk, and melted butter, in the order 
named, into the dry ingredients. Last, fold in the 
beaten whites. Bake in muffin-pans twenty-five min- 
utes. 

Whole-wheat Muffins 

Flour, 1}4 cupfuls. Salt, }4 teaspoonful. 

Baking-powder, 2 teaspoonfuls. Butter, 1 tablespoon ful. 
Sugar, 1 tablespoonful. Milk, ^ cupful. 

Mix and sift the dry ingredients. Stir in the melted 
butter and milk, and beat well. Bake in greased muffin- 
pans about twenty-five minutes. 

CoRNMEAL Muffins. 

Cornmeal, 1 cupful. Salt, i^ teaspoonful. 

Flour, 1 cupful. Milk, 1 cupful. 

Baking-powder, 2 teaspoonfuls. Butter, 1 tablespoonful. 
Eggs, 1. 

Scald half of the milk. Separate the egg, and beat 
the white to a stiff froth. Put the cornmeal in a bowl, 
make a well in the centre, into the well put the salt 
and butter. Stir in the scalded milk.^ Add the yolk 
unbeaten, the cold milk, and the flour and baking- 
powder sifted together. Beat well, and fold in the 
beaten whites. Bake in a hot oven thirty minutes. 

203. Digestion of quick breads. — Quick breads are 
most delicious when fresh. No bread, however, should 

1 Cornmeal is scalded to soften its starch, the time in the oven being 
too short to cook this. 



BREAD 113 

be eaten steaming hot, because in this state the inside 
part, or crumb, forms in the mouth a pasty mass not 
easily digestible. The crust contains dextrin and 
caramel, and is therefore more wholesome than the 
crumb. Little children and persons with delicate 
digestive powers should never eat the crumb of warm 
bread ; those who do eat it should chew it slowly and 
thoroughly. 

Try at home the experiments with acids and alkalies; test as 
many different substances as you can with litmus or cabbage water, 
and write them down, acids in one column, alkalies in another. 

From the following books and articles you can learn how people 
make bread without baking-powder or yeast. Woman's Share in 
Primitive Culture, Chapter II ; " Bread in the East," Penny Magazine, 
Vol. Ill, p. 2; "Tortillas," American Kitchen Magazine, Vol. VII, 
p. 3. The Domestic Science Reader has articles about crackers, hot 
cross buns, Mexican bread, and Zufii Indian bread, pp. 78-83. 

Section 2. Flour 

A Study of Wheat. Part II (^continued from 
p. 82) 

204. Analysis of wheat-flour. — A. Make half a cup of flour 
into a very stiff dough with a little water. Knead this several 
minutes on a very fine strainer set in a bowl of water. Examine 
what is left in the strainer. How does it look ? Feel ? Spread 
some of it on a saucer to dry and examine it again. Heat some 
in the oven, notice how it swells. (Plate VIII, facing p. 122.) 

B. Test the sediment in the water for starch in two ways. 

205. Gluten. — Wheat-flour, when kneaded with 
water, yields a yellowish gray substance that when 



114 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



moist is elastic and sticky like glue, and for this 

reason is called gluten. When dry it is horny and 

translucent. If moistened and heated, it expands to 
many times its original bulk. 

206. Flour or gluten may be tested for nitrogenous sub- 
stances by mixing with it a few drops of nitric acid. How 
will the nitrogen show itself ? 

Strictly speaking, gluten does not exist in wheat or in dry 
wheat-flour. What we do find is a mixture of gliadin and 
glutenin, which, when kneaded with water, unite chemically 
to form gluten ; but since they are always found together, 
we may consider them together as gluten. 

207. Composition of wheat. — Wheat owes its value as 
a tissue-builder to its gluten, which contains nitrogen. 

The body of 
the wheat 
grain is com- 
posed of starch 
and gluten ; 
the germ con- 
tains fat and 
tissue-building 
materials. Just 
beneath the 
bran coats are 

mineral salts. 

Fig. 11. — Cross-section of a wheat-grain, 

enlarged. valuable as 

a and c = bran-coats ; d = layer of alenrone cells ; e = cells boilC and UCrve 
containing starch and gluten. buildcrS ; the 

cell-walls consist of plant-fibre. Wheat also contains 




BREAD 



115 



208- — Microscopical examination of a wheat grain. — A. Pre- 
liminary. — Cut a wheat grain in two and draw the outline of its 
cut surface. 

B. Examine a mounted cross-section of a wheat grain. Ob- 
serve that it is the same shape as the cut surface of the grain 
you sliced in two. Look first at the mass of cells forming the 
body of the grain. These collectively are called the endosperm. 
They are full of starch and gluten. Are they larger or smaller 
than the starch cells in a potato? If the cross-section is taken 
from the near base of the 

grain, you may be able to 
find the germ or embryo, a 
little dark body near its 
centre. If so, notice how 
the cells of the endosperm 
seem to radiate from it. 
What is the use of the en- 
dosperm to the embryo? 
(§§ 146, 147.) Around the 
outside of the grain you 
will see a layer, in some 
places a double layer, of 
large, square cells. These 
contain tissue-building ma- 
terial (aleurone).^ This 
layer is generally removed ^ 
in milling. Outside of it 
are three coats of bran. 

C. Make a sketch from memory of the cross-section of the 
wheat grain. 

1 These were formerly supposed to contain most of the gluten of 
the grain, hence they are incorrectly termed "gluten cells" in many 
books. 




Fig. 12. — Portion of a cross-section of 
a wheat grain greatly enlarged. 

b, and c = bran-coats ; (Z = layer of aleurone 
cells; e and / = cells containing- starch and 
gluten. 



116 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

The Manufacture of Flour 

209. Cleaning. — If you ever visit a flour-mill you 
will first be shown the wheat as it is shovelled from 
cars into bins, mixed with other seeds, and with dirt, 
sticks, and nails. It is freed from these by being run 
through wire screens, scoured clean by revolving steel 
blades, and steamed slightly to soften its hard coats, 
before going to the rollers. 

210. Rolling. — - Each pair of rollers turns in the same 
direction, but one moves two or three times as fast as 
the other ; both are grooved, so that they cut or break 
rather than crush the grain. Each passage between 
a pair of rollers is accordingly called a break. From 
the first break the wheat comes out warm from the 
friction of the roller and looking and feeling something 
like coarse, damp sawdust. Next it passes to a machine 
called a scalper^ where it is shaken on a wire tray to 
separate the bran as far as possible from the middlings, 
or bits of the white middle part of the grain — the 
part to be made into flour. Then back go the branny 
parts to be ground over by a second set of grooved 
rollers, and again " scalped " ; while the middlings are 
crushed between smooth rollers, sifted, mixed with more 
middlings from the second break of the wheat, and 
ground over and over till reduced to flour. ^ 

211. Bolting. — After five breaks no more middlings 
are left in the bran, but a little fine bran called shorts 

1 Part of the fine middlings may be taken out to sell as farina. 



BREAD 117 

is still left to be taken out of the middlings. This is 
done by sifting, or bolting through silk gauze stretched 
over cylindrical frames called reels. The middlings 
are further purified by air-blasts that blow away flour- 
dust and light chaff. 

Having explained the milling process, the miller 
may show you a quantity of yellow disks the size of a 
pin head. These are germs flattened by the smooth 
rollers, and sifted out. If this were not done the 
diastase in them (§ 147) which prepares the starch for 
digestion by the seedling would spoil the flour by work- 
ing in it the same change that it does in the seed. 

212. Packing. — Lastly, you may see the finished flour 
packed by a machine that forces just one hundred and 
ninety-six pounds into each barrel, to be sold, some of it, 
perhaps, to the farmers who raised the wheat it is made 
from, some to city people who never saw a wheat-field. 

213. The best flour the most economical. — Most mills 
make several grades of flour. High grade patent flour 
is the whitest and the highest in price, although in 
some cases the next grade, called baker's, may be 
fully as nutritious. Lower grade flours are not desir- 
able, but so long as people buy them millers will sell 
them. There is no waste in a flour-mill ; screenings 
and bran are sold for cattle and horse feed, germ is 
made into a breakfast food, and, because people want 
cheap flour, a mixture of flour-dust, shorts, and other 
by-products is put up to satisfy the demands of their 
purses, if not of their bodies. 



118 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Do not buy cheap flour, thinking you are saving 
money ; you are only helping the manufacturer to save. 

214. Flour made from the whole grain. — Graham flour 
was formerly made by grinding the Avhole grain, with- 
out bolting it; what is now sold as "graham" is usually 
low-grade flour mixed with coarse bran, indigestible 
and irritating to the stomach and intestines. Entire or 
whole-wheat flour is produced by grinding together all 
parts of tlie kernel except the bran and the germ. 

215. Good bread flour, and how to tell it. — Glutinous 
flour, besides being more nutritious than starchy flour, 
makes the elastic dough necessary for producing light 
yeast bread. Hard spring wheat, being rich in gluten, 
yields such flour. You may know it (1) hy its creamy 
ivhite color, (2) hy its gritty feeling, (3) by its capacity 
for absorbing ivater, nearly one and one-half cupfuls 
of flour being taken up by one quart of good flour in 
making dough stiff enough for yeast bread, and (4) by 
its caking but slightly when squeezed in the hand.^ 

Where to find more about flour and flour-mills. — In Foods and 
^eyero^es, pp. 30-36; Food Products of the l^oWaf, pp. 149-155; and 
in " Flour-milling in the Northwest," The Nation, Vol. LIV, p. 424. 

Section 3. Macaroni and Other Flour Pastes 

216. Macaroni, spaghetti, vermicelli, and other Italian 
pastes made from the glutinous flour of hard wheat, are 
to Italians what our various kinds of bread are to us. 
To make them, a stiff mixture of flour and hot water is 

1 For cake and pastry, flour made from winter wheat is desirable. 
Unfortunately, poor bread flour is often sold under the name of pastry 
flour. 



BREAD 119 

placed in an iron cylinder, the end of which is closed by 
a disk pierced with holes. A piston forces the paste 
out through these in threads, rods, or tubes, according 
to the shape of the openings. When dry, the threads 
form vermicelli (Italian for little ivorms)^ — the rods, 
spaghetti (Italian for a cord), and the tubes, macaroni 
(Italian for crushed). Italian macaroni is dried by 
hanging over wooden rods in the open air or in ovens ; 
American macaroni is laid on flat frames. 

217. Excellent macaroni is made in this country by 

cleanlier methods than those used abroad, but because of 
a common, though mistaken, belief that Italian wheat 
is superior to ours, people will not buy it, except with 
Italian or French labels. Why not show sense and 
patriotism by preferring a domestic article, if it is as 
good or better than an imported one, and, by so doing, 
make it unnecessary for manufacturers to use deceptive 
labels ? 

218. How to know good macaroni. — Good macaroni is 
yellowish in color and rough in texture ; it breaks 
cleanly without splitting, in boiling swells to double its 
bulk, and neither becomes pasty nor loses its tubular 
shape. Imitations made of starchy flour colored, are 
made both here and abroad. 

219. Macaroni contains so much gluten that it is almost 
equal to meat as a food, especially if cooked with cheese. 

220. Spaghetti may be prepared in any way suitable 
for macaroni, but is usually served with Tomato Sauce. 



120 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Vermicelli is used only in soups. Noodles, to serve in 
soup, are made in various shapes from a paste of flour, 
water, and eggs. 

Recipes 

221. To grate cheese. — Use Parmesan, or any cheese 
stale enough to be dry. Grate on a coarse grater, and 
do not pack the grated cheese in measuring it. 

222. To prepare buttered crumbs for scalloped dishes. — 
Mix dried crumbs (§ 234) with melted butter, using one- 
fourth of a cupful of butter to one cupful of crumbs. 

Tomato Sauce (for Spaghetti, Macaroni, or Boiled Rice) 

Tomato (canned or steamed), 1 cupful. 
Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Flour, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Onion (chopped), 1 teaspoonful. 

Salt, %. teaspoonful. 

Pepper, yi teaspoonful. 

Cook the onion with the tomato fifteen minutes. 
Mix butter and flour together. Strain the tomato and 
add it to the butter and flour. Cook all together for 
ten minutes, or until smooth, then add salt and pepper. 

Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce 

Spaghetti, K of a box. Salt, 1 tablespoonful. 

Boiling water, 2 quarts. Tomato sauce, Xy^ cupfuls. 

Hold the sticks of spaghetti in a bunch, and dip the 
ends into the boiling salted water. As they soften and 
bend, lower them into the water, letting them coil 
around in the saucepan. The spaghetti may thus be 



BREAD 121 

cooked without breaking. Boil for twenty minutes, 
or until soft, drain, rinse with cold water (to remove 
starch that might make it sticky), and mix with the 
tomato sauce. 

Recipe for Baked Macaroni with Cheese 

Macaroni broken in one-inch pieces, ^ cupful. 
Boiling water, 2 quarts. 

Salt, 1 tablespoonful. 

Grated cheese, >( to ^ cupful. 

White sauce (made from 2 tablespoonfuls of butter, 

l^^ tablespoonfuls of flour, 1 cupful of milk, and yi 

teaspoonful of salt). 
Buttered crumbs, ^ cupful. 

Boil the macaroni in the water for twenty minutes, 
or until soft, adding salt when nearly cooked. Drain 
in a strainer, and rinse with cold water. 

Put a layer of macaroni in a buttered baking-dish, 
sprinkle with cheese ; repeat until all the cheese and 
macaroni have been used ; pour the white sauce over 
the top. Cover with buttered crumbs, and bake until 
these are brown. 

Section 4. Yeast Bread; Yeast 

Remember thy bread and bake it well, for he will not be kept well 
who eateth his bread as dough. 

223. The perfect loaf of bread is regular in shape, 
has a crisp crust, evenly browned, and a tender, but 
rather firm crumb of even grain. It tastes sweet and 
nutty, smells fresh, and keeps good for several days. 
How may we make such a loaf ? The ingredients are 



122 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

few, the process is simple, and with care, skill is not 
hard to acquire. 

Recipes (Plate VII, facing p. 102) 

White Bread 

Flour, From 3 to 3}4 cupfuls. 

Cold water, J4 cupful. 

Milk, }4 cupful. 

Lukewarm ^ water, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Compressed yeast, }4 cake. 

Salt, }4 teaspoonfiil. 

Mixing. — Scald the milk ; sift and measure the flour 
(three and one-half cupfuls) ; put the salt in a bowl 
and pour the milk upon it. Add the cold water, then 
the yeast mixed smoothly with the lukewarm water. 
Having stirred all together, stir in enough flour (about 
two and three-fourths cupfuls) to make a drop-batter. 
Beat this batter until it is full of bubbles ; then beat in 
gradually enough more flour to make a rather soft 
dough. When too stiff to beat, rub a little flour on 
the moulding-board, and turn the dough out. 

Kneading. — Dust a little flour on the dough and on 
the palms of your hands. Fold the edge of the dough 
farthest from you toward the centre of the mass, imme- 
diately pressing the dough down and away from you 
with a gentle rolling motion of the palms of the hands, 
twice repeated. Turn the dough so that what was the 
right-hand part of it shall be farthest away from you ; 
fold over and knead as before ; continue to do this, 
turning the dough and flouring your hands, the board, 
1 Of the same temperature as your hand, 98° F. 



BREAD 123 

and the dough, to keep the latter from sticking. 
Should it stick to the board scrape it free with a dull 
knife, and flour the board anew. Knead the dough 
until it does not stick to your hands or the board, is 
smooth on the surface, feels spongy and elastic, and 
rises quickly after being indented. 

First rising. — Replace the dough-ball in the bowl, 
brush the top with water, cover the bowl with several 
thicknesses of cloth, and set it near the stove or in a 
pan of warm water, turning another pan over it. 

Second rising. — When the dough has risen to twice 
its original bulk, lift it on to the board and shape into 
small loaves, handling lightly and using little or no 
flour. Put into pans, and let it stand in a warm place 
covered with a thick, clean cloth, until it has again 
doubled in bulk. 

Baking. — When nearly risen, test the oven ; it should 
be hot enough to turn a piece of writing paper dark 
brown in six minutes. Bake small French loaves 
thirty-five minutes ; brick loaves, four inches thick, 
fifty to sixty minutes. Turn the pans if the bread 
does not bake evenly. 

Plain Bread Rolls, Finger Rolls, and Bread Sticks 

Shape these from white bread-dough after its first 
rising. For bread rolls, cut or pull off pieces the size 
of an egg ; draw up and pinch the edges together, 
forming balls ; then with your hand roll each into a 
cylindrical shape on the board. Put into French roll- 
pans, let rise until more than doubled in bulk, and bake 



124 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

from twelve to fifteen minutes. Or, put the balls on a 

flat pan, and when they have risen cut a cleft nearly an 

inch deep across the top of each one. Bake twelve to 

fifteen minutes. For finger rolls, roll pieces of dough 

half the size of an egg into cylinders five inches long. 

For bread sticks, roll out sticks of dough about half an 

inch thick and from six to ten inches long. Bake these 

and finger rolls ten minutes. The oven may be a little 

hotter for rolls than for loaves. (Plate VII, facing 

p. 102.) 

Whole-wheat Bread 

Flour, About 3 cupfuls. 

Lukewarm water, 1^ cupfuls. 

Compressed j^east, >^ cake. 

Salt, j4 teaspoonful. 

Mix the yeast smoothly with one-fourth of a cupful 
of the lukewarm water ; dissolve the salt in the rest of 
the water in a bowl ; stir the yeast into this ; and then 
stir in enough flour to make a drop-batter. Beat until 
the batter is full of bubbles (not less than five minutes), 
cover the bowl, and let the batter, or spoyige} rise until 
doubled in bulk. (See recipe for White Bread.) Beat 
in the rest of the flour, and knead for five minutes. ^ 

1 Sponge is yeast-batter ; allowing it to rise before adding more 
flour is called "sponging" or "setting a sponge." Sponging makes 
bread finer-grained, but lengthens the time required to make bread 
with white flour, which needs two risings after the sponge has risen. 
Whole-wheat bread may be made without setting a sponge, but should 
then rise twice after being kneaded. 

2 Whole-wheat dough, if made stiff enough for thorough kneading, 
is close and hard when baked. Beat it well, knead slightly, and 
mould while still somewhat sticky. 



BREAD 125 

(For directions for kneading, see recipe for White 
Bread.) Mould into loaves, let rise in pans until again 
doubled in bulk, and bake like white bread. Whole- 
wheat rolls may be made like white-flour rolls. 

Either white or whole-wheat bread may be mixed 
with water, milk, or half milk and half water, as 
may be preferred. Water bread is sweeter, tougher, 
and keeps longer than "half-and-half" or all-milk 
bread. Bread properly made from good materials 
requires neither shortening nor sweetening, but keeps 
moist longer if one tablespoonful of shortening (butter, 
lard, or drippings) is added for each cupful of liquid. 

224. These two kinds of bread contain neither soda 
nor baking-powder. What do they contain that is not 
used in quick breads ? Does yeast make bread light ? 
and if so, how ? The first thing to find out is : — 

225. What yeast is. — Yeast is a mass of tiny plants, 
each a single, rounded cell consisting of a sac filled with 
watery matter. Under a microscope new cells may be 
seen budding out of old ones, forming branching chains. 
Each cell, however, lives and grows independently. 
Sometimes, usually in old yeast, daughter-cells form as 
spores inside a mother-cell, and burst through the 
enclosing sac. The home of yeast is on the skin of 
grapes and on parts of some other plants. 

A Study of Yeast 

226. Microscopical examination. — Examine under a micro- 
scope a drop of yeast grown in Exp. A (preferably in molasses 




Is 



126 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

and water). Note («) the shape of the cells, (6) their walls, 
(c) granular appearance of cells, if existing. This is more notice- 
able in old cells. Try to find a cell just budding. Make one or 
more memory drawings of what you see. 

227. The growth of yeast ; experiments. — A. Mix one table- 
spoonful of flour, one of sugar,i and three-fourths of a yeast- 
cuke to a smooth paste with four or five tablespoonfuls of cold 
water. Divide the mixture between three six-inch test-tubes (or 

three tumblers). Label the test- 

r-\ tubes a, b, and c respectively. 

Fill a with boiling water; half fill 

b with lukewarm water, and stand 

it in lukewarm water or in a warm 

place ; half fill c with cold water and 

keep it at a temperature of 32° F. 

or below (by placing it in a bowl 

of cracked ice, or outside the win- 

^^^.^ dow on a freezing day). In a fourth 

^^^ test-tube, d, put one-fourth of a 

Fic. ^^^. —Yeast-cells. yeast-cake mixed with water only; 

treat it like b.^ 

After fifteen minutes examine all four test-tubes. What do you 

see on the top of the liquid in b ? What goes on in the liquid ? 

Let a and c stand for a time where they will be about as warm as 

/; ; what change do you notice in either of them ? Is there any 

foam on cH The quantity of foam produced is a measure of the 

vigor of the yeast. At what temperature does yeast thrive best ? 

Will it grow at all at 32°? After being frozen and thawed? 

After being heated to 212°? Will it grow in water alone? 

B. (To be done during the i^rogress of Exp. A.) Prepare in a 
generating flask a mixture like the first used in Exp. A, using 

1 Adding sugar hastens the growth of the yeast ; for bread-making 
the sugar in the flour is sufficient. 

2 A mixture of molasses and water may be used instead of a flour 
mixture in this series of experiments. 



BREAD 



127 



three or four times the quantity. Arrange an apparatus like that 

shown in Fig. 14. Or use test-tube h instead of a flask, standing 

it in a tumbler of warm water. What gas comes from the yeast 

mixture ? In what other ways may 

this gas be produced ? What 

effect has it when introduced into 

batter or dough? As it is heavier 

than air, this gas may, with care, 

be poured into a tumbler from the 

bowl in which bread is rising, and 

tested by pouring lime-water into ^ 

the tumbler. 




Fig. 14. — Apparatus for proving 
that growing yeast produces 
carbon dioxide. 



flask containing yeast mixture, 
vessel of warm water, 
bealver containing' lime-water. 
glass tube. 



228. Story of the yeast 
plant ; what it needs in order 
to grow. — Like mushrooms 
and other fungi (singular 
fungus) which have no 
green coloring-matter (^chlo- 
rophyll)^ yeast needs no light ; and like these, it grows 
and multiplies fast. It is like green plants in tliat it 
grows only when kept warm and moist. It thrives 
best at 78° F. It may be forced to grow and bud 
unnaturally fast by a higher temperature, just as hot- 
house plants are ; but at about 130° F. it loses its live- 
liness, and by heat greater than this it is killed. Cold 
checks its growth, but even after being frozen it will, 
if thawed, revive and grow as well as fever. It needs 
water, and either some nitrogenous foodstuff, such as 
gluten, or some mineral matter containing nitrogen to 
feed upon. Dried yeast-cells floating in the air revive 
if they fall where conditions are right for their develop- 



128 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

ment, and grow just as seeds do that fall on good 
ground. 

229. How yeast obtains oxygen. — A name meaning 
sugar-fungus has been given to yeast, because, while 
most vigorous when well supplied with air, it will 
always, when sugar is at hand, take from this a part of 
the oxygen it needs. To get oxygen out of sugar, the 
yeast-cell digests the latter by means of a fluid it 
secretes. It is not known whether this fluid acts inside 
or outside of the yeast-cell, but it is known that it 
splits the sugar into simpler compounds, the most im- 
portant of these being alcohol and carbon dioxide. 

230. Fermentation ; ferments. — A chemical change of 
this kind, where one organic substance is decomposed 
by another, is called fermentation, and the substance 
causing the change is called a ferment. The action of 
yeast in bread-raising is an alcoholic fermentation of 
sugar. 

231. The digestion of starch, both in animals and in 
plants, the digestion of proteids, the souring of milk, and 
the clotting of milk by rennet are other kinds of fermenta- 
tion. What is the ferment in each of these cases ? What 
are some of the substances produced? (§§ 129, 174, 175, 
176, 325.) 

232. Cultivated yeasts. — Liquid yeast is yeast culti- 
vated in a mixture of potatoes, sugar, water, and hops. 
No home-made or baker's yeast can be as uniformly 
good as the pure yeast cultivated by brewers and dis- 
tillers. Distiller's yeast, skimmed from fermented rye, 



BREAD 129 

washed, mixed with starch and pressed, is most com- 
monly used for making bread. Each cake contains 
about fifty billion yeast-cells. 

233. The yeast-garden. — Dough, after yeast is mixed 
with it, becomes a yeast-garden, which we must tend 
carefully in order to have a good crop of yeast and a 
plentiful yield of carbon dioxide. The water supplies 
moisture; the flour supplies sugar, which the yeast- 
plant, in its greed for oxygen, turns into alcohol and 
carbon dioxide. More oxygen is supplied by beating 
and kneading in air. The right temperature, 78° to 
90° F., is insured by using lukewarm liquid and by 
keeping the sponge and dough warm until it is ready 
to be baked. What is the result ? A dough filled 
with bubbles of gas given off by the lively yeast-cells ; 
a dough that has lost a little of its sweetness, but 
gained other pleasant flavors through various fermen- 
tative actions of the yeast on the flour. 

After alcoholic fermentation has gone on for some 
time, another ferment begins to work on the alcohol, 
turning it into acetic acid (the acid found in vinegar). 
This is why dough sours if allowed to rise too long or 
at too high a temperature. 

When the dough is just light enough,^ it is put into 
an oven so hot that the yeast is quickly killed. Nearly 
all the alcohol is driven out of the bread as vapor dur- 
ing baking. 

1 Do not try to neutralize sour dough with baking-soda. Soda forms 
with acetic acid an unwholesome compound, and besides, since there 
is no way of knowing exactly how much acid has been formed, you 

K 



130 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Helpful Hints about Bread-making 

1. To keep the dough from cooling, mix and knead 
it quickly. In cold weather, warm the flour, the board, 
and the mixing bowl. 

2. The longer the batter is beaten, the less kneading 
the dough will require. When the dough can be lifted 
in a mass on the spoon, it is ready to knead. 

3. We knead bread (1) to mix the ingredients thor- 
oughly, (2) to make the gluten elastic, and (3) to work 
in air. Dough is sufficiently kneaded when it can be 
left on the board for a minute or more without sticking. 
Use as little flour as possible. 

4. Sponge rises faster than dough. Why ? It is de- 
sirable to set a sponge (1) if you have to make bread 
with a scant quantity of yeast ; (2) if using home-made 
or other yeast that you fear may not be very active ; 
(3) when butter and eggs are to be added, as these 
can be mixed more easily with sponge than with 
dough. 

5. By using not less than one yeast-cake to one pint 
of liquid the following advantages are gained : (1) The 
bread can be made and baked within five hours. (2) It 
may more easily be kept clean and free from kitchen 
o lors than if it stood longer. (3) It has not time to 
sour. 

6. If you are unable to attend to the dough as soon 
as it is risen, it may be cut down (z.e. scraped away 

are likely to use too much soda. Bread " sweetened " with soda is 
more unwholesome than bread a little sour. 



BREAD 131 

from the sides of the bowl and pressed over into the 
centre) and allowed to rise again. 

7. Dough that contains large bubbles has risen too 
fast or too long. It should be cut down and rekneaded 
to distribute the gas evenly. Sour dough falls in the 
middle, is stringy, and smells and tastes acid. 

8. Use round or French bread-pans; in the corners 
of rectangular pans the dough has not room fully to 
expand. Make small loaves always, to insure the 
bread's being baked through ; in large loaves, the heat 
may fail to penetrate to the centre, and some yeast may 
remain alive. This yeast, fermenting in the stomach 
of the person that eats the bread, is likely to cause 
serious indigestion. If obliged to use pans more than 
four inches broad, bake the bread from one hour and 
a quarter to one hour and a half, decreasing the 
heat after the first half hour. Why should it be 
decreased ? 

9. If the oven is too hot, set a pan of water in it for 
a few minutes. If bread rises much after being put 
into the oven, the heat is not great enough ; if it begins 
to brown in less than fifteen minutes, the heat is too 
great. If the loaf rises or browns more on one side 
than on the other, turn it around. 

10. The crust, by preventing the inside of the loaf 
from drying, keeps the centre from becoming hotter 
than about 212° F. Which is more digestible, crust or 
crumb ? Why ? 

11. Bread is baked when it shrinks from the sides 
of the pan. To make the crust crisp and tender, rub it 



132 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

while hot with a bit of butter twisted in a piece of 
cloth or paper. Set fresh loaves on edge in such a way 
that air reaches all sides of them. When cool put 
them in a tin box or stone jar, without wrapping. 
Wrapping bread in cloth makes it damp and musty. 
234. Uses for stale bread. — Stale bread, if heated in 
a closely covered pan, becomes almost like new. Keep 
pieces of stale bread by themselves in a jar or covered 
bowl. Stale slices may be used for toast. (See direc- 
tions for toasting bread, § 153.) Dry broken pieces in 
a warm oven until they are crisp, but not brown. 
Crush them on a board with a rolling-pin kept for this 
purpose ; sift the crumbs, and keep them in a jar to 
use for croquettes, etc. They will keep several weeks. 
Coarser or browned crumbs may be used for the tops of 
scalloped dishes. Stale crumbs not dried are suitable 
for bread puddings and filling of scalloped dishes. 
Bread dried slowly in the oven till brittle and brown 
all through is liked by many people and is excellent 
for children. 

Fancy Bread Recipes 

Parker House Rolls 

Flour, 4 cupfuls. Scalded milk, 1 cupful. 

Salt, 14. teaspoonful. Compressed yeast, 1 cake, mixed with 

Butter, 2 tablespooiifuls. Lukewarm water, ]4- cupful. 
Sugar, 1 tablespoonful ; extra butter melted. 

Reserve one-half cupful of flour. Sift the salt with 
the rest, rub in the butter, and sift again. Let the 
milk cool until lukewarm ; then stir into it the yeast 



BREAD 133 

and add the flour gradually, using as much of the 
reserved portion as is necessary. When stiff enough, 
knead the dough on a board. Let it rise until tripled 
in bulk. Roll out about one-half inch thick, cut with 
a biscuit-cutter, spread lightly with melted butter, 
crease with the back of a knife-handle dipped in flour, 
and fold almost double. Let the rolls rise until doubled 
in bulk (about twenty minutes). Brush them with 
water or milk, and bake in a very hot oven fifteen 
minutes. 

Swedish Rolls 

Flour, about 4 cupfuls. Scalded milk, 1 cupful. 

Sugar, 2 tablespoon fuls. Compressed yeast, 1 cake mixed with 
Salt, i^ teaspoonful. Lukewarm water, % cupful. 

Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. Eggs, 2. 

Currants, about yi cupful ; extra butter and sugar. 

Pour the milk over the butter, salt, and sugar. 
When these have melted or dissolved, stir in the yeast 
mixed with the water. Add enough flour to make a 
drop-batter, beating till full of bubbles. Let it rise 
until very light. Add the eggs unbeaten, beat well ; 
add enough more flour to make a soft dough, knead 
thoroughly, and let it rise again. When tripled in 
bulk, roll out, with as little handling as possible, into 
a rectangle a little less than one-half inch in thickness ; 
spread thinly with softened butter, working from the 
centre toward the edges. Sprinkle with currants and 
sugar. Roll the dough up into a cylinder one inch in 
diameter, and cut it into slices one inch thick. Place 
these close together cut side down on shallow greased 



134 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

pans, and let them rise till very light. Dissolve one 
teaspoonful of sugar in two tablespoonfuls of milk; 
brush the tops of the rolls with this mixture, and bake 
them twenty minutes in a hot oven. 

235. To clean currants. — (1) Sprinkle with flour and 
rub between the folds of a clean cloth, (2) pick off 
stems, (3) rinse currants in a wire strainer until the 
water comes through cleau, (4) shake to remove water, 
and (5) dry in the sun, or in a warm, not hot, oven. 

Digestion and Food Value of Bread 

236. Try to crumble fresh bread, stale bread, bread- 
crust, soft toast, crisp dry toast. Which crumble more 
easily ? Which will be most readily broken up by the 
teeth ? Well-chewed bread tastes better and satisfies 
hunger more quickly than bread swallowed hastily. 

237. Reasons for chewing bread. — Not only does chew- 
ing aid solution, but, by exciting the nerves communicating 
between the mouth and other digestive organs, it starts a 
flow of digestive juices toward the stomach and intestines ; 
so that well-chewed food meets in them a welcome not given 
to food hurried down the esophagus before its arrival in the 
mouth has been announced. For the gluten, pepsin is ready ; 
and any starch not wholly digested is awaited in the small 
intestine by a fluid, the pancreatic juice, which converts it 
into sugars easily absorbed by the intestinal walls and 
passed on into the blood-stream, 

238. Completion of starch digestion. — Saliva, which is 
alkaline, loses its digestive power when attacked by acid. 
After being swallowed, it continues to digest starch for 
about three-quarters of an hour before sufficient hydro- 



BREAD 135 

chloric acid accumulates in the stomach to check its 
action. 

239. White bread compared with other foods. — A 

family eating a one-pound loaf of white bread for 
breakfast obtain about three times the nourishment 
they would from a pound of potatoes, and more than 
four times what they would from a pound (about one 
pint) of oatmeal mush ; indeed, oatmeal being less 
completely digested than wheat bread, its food value 
is even lower than this estimate makes it. The value 
of any food depends on its digestibility quite as much 
as on the amount of foodstuffs it contains. Entire- 
wheat bread, for instance, although richer than white 
bread in gluten and mineral matter, supplies to the 
body less of these materials, much of them going to 
waste. For constant use, white bread is probably best. 

"The Staff of Life," "More about Bread," "A Machine Baker," 
and " Crackers " are the titles of short articles about bread in Food 
and Beverages, pp. 39-50. Farmers' Bulletin No. 112, sent free on 
application to the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C, gives many interesting facts about Bread and Bread-making 
not included in this little text-book. Boys and Girls in Biology, by 
Sarali Hackett Stevenson, contains in its first chapter an excellent 
description of the life of yeast. Books published several years ago, 
however, before the processes of fermentation and bread-making 
were as well understood as they are now, may contain incorrect 
statements ; new facts are discovered daily, so, as a rule, use the 
most recent books you can find. 



CHAPTER V 
FOOD IN ITS RELATION TO LIFE 
Section 1. Body stuffs and Foodstuffs 

It is essential that the body should be perfect in order that the brain 
may have a chance to do its work. — G. Stanley Hall. 

240. Body, organs, tissues, cells. — The body of a human 
being, like those of most all animals and plants, consists 
of parts called organs. The special work of each organ 
is called its function. What is the function of the eye ? 
Of the lungs ? Of the stomach ? Of a root ? Of a 
leaf ? Organs differ from one another, not in function 
only, but also in make-up, or structure. The various 
kinds of material composing the organs of the body are 
called tissue, bony tissue being found in bones, nervous 
tissue in nerves, muscular tissue not in muscles only, 
but in other organs. The tissues of the body are made 
up of cells, as the walls of a house are constructed of 
bricks. Instead, however, of being laid together, as 
bricks are, these cells grow together, each kind of tissue 
being built of similar cells of a particular kind. 

241. Cells in the body not all alike. — One yeast-cell is 
much like another, but how about the cells in a grain 
of wheat? Starch-cells differ from bran-cells in struc- 
ture because they differ in function. Each yeast-cell is 

136 



FOOD IN ITS RELATION TO LIFE 137 

independent, doing all its own work ; but in higher 
forms of life, both plant and animal, where many cells 
are joined together in one individual, some have one 
function, some another. We may compare a yeast-plant 
to a man living alone, preparing his own food and mak- 
ing everything he needs ; while a tree or a horse or the 
body of a human being is like a nation, in which some 
men are farmers, some manufacturers, some merchants, 
and so on. And just as the merchant does not under- 
stand farming, nor the man that raises wheat know how 
to make it into flour, so a cell of one kind cannot do the 
work of another. Cells in lung tissue, for example, are 
adapted for absorbing oxygen, and cells in the retina of 
the eye for receiving rays of light ; but neither of them 
are able to take in food until it has been prepared for 
them by stomach-cells. 

242. Bodystuffs. — In the cells of the body many com- 
pounds are found, most of them being combinations of 
some or all of the following elements : carbon, hydro- 
gen, oxygen, nitrogen. Calcium is found in bones, 
phosphorus in nerves, iron in blood, coloring it red ; and 
these and other elements in small quantities in various 
tissues. 

243. Three chief classes of organic foodstuffs : proteids,^ 
fats, carbohydrates. — Proteids, which are compounds of 
carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, a little sulphur, 
and in some cases phosphorus, are found in every living 
thing, and are the most important of the bodystuffs. 

^ Proteid comes from a word meanino; " I take first rank." 



138 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Water and proteids together make up most of the 
flesh and blood and a large part of the rest of the body. 
It is plam now why albumin, casein, and gluten are such 
good tissue-builders ; being made up of these same ele- 
ments, they supply the material necessary for building 
and repairing tissue. Henceforth, we shall speak of 
tissue-builders as proteids, and of foods in which they 
are found abundantly as proteid foods. 

244. Closely related to the proteids are the gelatinoids, 
a group of foodstuffs comprising gelatin, collagen, and 
other substances similar to proteids in composition. 
Gelatinoids do not build tissue, but help indirectly to 
build it, for when present they keep proteid from being 
used as fuel. Their chief function, then, is that of ''pro- 
teid sparers." 

245. Fat, like proteid matter, is both a foodstuff and 
a bodystuff. In the body fatty tissue is found both in 
masses and mixed with other tissues. Such parts of the 
fats of food as are not oxidized at once, go to build 
up this tissue, which serves as a reserve supply of fuel. 
A third class of foodstuffs, the carbohydrates, includes 
starch, sugar, and all other foodstuffs composed of car- 
bon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the two latter being in the 
right proportions to form water. Very little carbo- 
hydrate matter is found in animal bodies, that taken in 
vegetable food being largely consumed in producing 
energy. The acids of vegetables and fruits, though 
forming but a minute part of our food, are essential 
to the healthy condition of the blood. 



FOOD IN ITS RELATION TO LIFE 139, 

246. Animal and plant foods. — Animal foods consist 
chiefly of proteicls ; plant or vegetable foods, while in 
many cases containing proteids, contain much greater 
proportions of carbohydrates. Which is most like the 
human body in structure and composition, animal or 
plant food? Which would you expect to find most 
easily digested ? 

247. Two classes of inorganic foodstuffs. — Since lime, 
potash, sodium, and other mineral matters form part of our 
living bodies, these too must be included in food. We 
take them in chiefly as soluble salts in the juices of meats, 
fruits, and vegetables, the only mineral substance added 
to food being common salt (^sodium chloride}. Water by 
itself does not nourish the body; that is, it neither builds 
tissue nor yields energy; but so necessary is it to the 
carrying on of these and other life processes that it 
may be considered a foodstuff. (§41.) 

248. Functions of food. — Tissue-building, heat-giving, 
force-making ; these are the primary functions respec- 
tively of proteids, fats, and carbohydrates. But no one 
of them is limited to one kind of work. Have we not 
learned that carbohydrates yield energy in the form of 
heat as well as of force, and that fats yield both these 
and build one kind of tissue besides ? Proteid, a tissue- 
builder by reason of its nitrogen, is also, because of its 
unoxidized carbon, a fuel food. Thus a temporary lack 
of one of these chief classes of foodstuffs is readily 
made good by another. Bear in mind, however, that 
only nitrogenous foodstuffs build tissue (fatty issue ex- 



140 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

cepted); so, while a diet of proteids (with water and 
mineral matter) may sustain life, on a diet of carbohy- 
drates, or fat, or both, a person would waste away and 
die. 

249. Food adjuncts are substances not nutritious, but 
taken for their pleasant taste or stimulating effect. 
Such are spices, flavorings, tea, coffee, and some other 
beverages. 

250. Fermented liquors (wine, beer, whiskey, gin, etc.) 
are taken for the sake of the alcohol they contain.^ In 
small doses alcohol yields a little energy. But not all 
substances that yield energy in the body are foods, any 
more than all combustible substances are fuels. Some 
of the latter are dangerous explosives. Some of the 
former are poisons ; morphia and carbolic acid, for ex- 
ample. Alcohol, like these poisons, is more powerful 
for harm than for good. Instead of satisfying a want, 
it produces an unnatural craving ; in spite of the feel- 
ing of warmth it gives, it really lowers the bodily tem- 
perature ; instead of building tissue, it injures it, 
particularly that of the nerves and brain. Alcohol is 
not, therefore, in the ordinary sense of the word, a food, 
although, like other drugs, it may sometimes be used as 
a medicine. 

1 Beer contains, exclusive of alcohol, less than one-tenth the quantity 
of nutritive material contained in an equal weight of bread. It has 
been estimated that fourteen cents' worth of beer is equalled in food 
value by a little over one cent's worth of bread. 



FOOD IN ITS RELATION TO LIFE 141 

Section 2. Diet 

Simple diet is best, for many dishes bring many diseases. — Pliny. 

251. The normal diet is one containing both nitrogenous 
and no7i-nitrogenous food. A person limited to proteid 
food, such as lean meat, would have to take in more 
nitrogen than he needed in order to get enough carbon; 
on the other hand, on a diet of rice, he would have to 
eat enormously in order to get enough proteid and 
fat. 

The ability of one kind of food or foodstuff to take 
the place of another makes it impossible to say in just 
what proportions these should be combined to form a 
perfect diet. It has been found that a man at work 
keeps well and strong on about the following daily 
allowance : — 

Proteids, 100 grams (3.5 ounces). 

Fats, 50 grams (1.7 ounces). 

Carbohydrates, 500 grams (17.5 ounces). 

Mineral salts, 30 grams (1 ounce). 

Water, 2800 grams (100 ounces, or a little 

more than six pints, much of this 
being contained in food) . 

With more fat, however, he would require less pro- 
teid. The quantity and proportion of food needed 
varies with age, climate, habits of life, and other 
conditions. Familiarity with the Table giving the 
Chemical Composition of American Food Materials, on 
p. 319, will aid you in selecting food and in planning 
meals. 



142 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Practical Points about feeding a Family 

252. 1 . Brain-workers (teachers, students, clerks, etc.) 
need easily digestible food ; muscle workers (working- 
men, etc.) find coarser food better suited to their needs. 

2. No one meal need be " balanced," that is, need 
contain proteids, carbohydrates, and fats in perfect pro- 
portion, but each day's food should include all three 
kinds, and a week's dietary should approach the stand- 
ard. (See table on p. 141.) 

3. Diet should be varied as well as mixed ; for ex- 
ample, do not depend too much on potatoes for starch ; 
have rice or macaroni sometimes instead. 

4. When planning a meal, think what was served at 
the preceding one ; if starchy foods chiefly, supply 
plenty of proteid. Do not forget that butter, eggs, 
milk, etc., used in cooking count as food just as much 
as if served by themselves on the table. By planning 
meals, in part at least, for several days ahead, you will 
find it easier to provide varied and rightly balanced 
fare. 

5. Food is not necessarily nutritious in proportion 
to its cost. (See Economy in Marketing, § 320, and 
Selecting Vegetables, §395; also Appendix B.) 

6. Remember that plant proteid may take the place 
of animal proteid ; if you have but a small piece of 
meat, serve peas or beans with it rather than beets. 
(§392.) 

7. Familiarize yourself with the composition of com- 
mon foods so that you may readily think of suitable 



FOOD IN ITS RELATION TO LIFE 143 

combinations and know how to supply lack of one food 
by another of similar character. 

Helpful Reading in the American Kitchen Magazine. — " Every- 
day Breakfasts," Vol. XIII, p. 18; "Food for a Typical 
American Family," Vol. VI, p. 26 (for pupils who have had a year 
of cookery) ; " A Twenty-fom- Cent Dinner," Vol. XI, p. 9 ; and 
" Menus " in each month's issue during 1898. 



CHAPTER VI 

TISSUE-BUILDING POODS : THE FLESH OF 
ANIMALS 

Section 1. Meat: Its Structure, Composition, and 
Cooking 

253. In general, flesh-food is called meat. In our 
markets, however, this term is applied only to the flesh 
of cattle, sheep, and swine, that of mature animals being 
known as beef, mutton, and pork, respectively, that of 
calves as veal, and of lambs as lamb. 

Lean Meat: A study of it in connection with its 
preparation in some simple ways. 

Directions for One Way of preparing Beef-juice 

254. Use a one-half pound slice of the top round of 
beef cut three-fourths of an inch thick. Let a small 
bowl stand in a pan of boiling-hot water until thor- 
oughly heated ; then lay in it the beef, letting first one 
side, then the other, lie next to the bowl. When the 
heat has whitened it, cut it into small pieces, and 
squeeze these, a few at a time, in a meat-press, vege- 
table-press, or lemon-squeezer. (For serving Beef- 
juice, see p. 305.) 

255. Composition and structure of lean meat. — What 
foodstuff have we found in the animal foods we have 

144 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 145 

already used ? How can we find out if it is also con- 
tained in meat ? 

Experiment. — A. Test beef-juice for albumin. If albumin is 
shown to be present, observe the form in which it appears. Com- 
pare with pure white-of-egg cooked, and with white-of-egg mixed 
with water and heated. AVhat besides albumin do you think beef- 
juice contains ? Note that heating destroys the red color of beef- 
juice. What gives it this color ? 

256. Nitric acid added to beef-juice clots it and turns it 
yellow. What does this prove? What other nitrogenous 
substance is coagulated by acid ? Human flesh, too, is 
stained yellow by nitric acid. How do you explain this? 

257. Beef-juice contains albumin and other proteids, 
mineral salts, and extractives, dissolved in water ; boil- 
ing coagulates the albumin into a brownish jelly. In 
the bits of beef we have pressed there remains some 
albuminous juice ; what besides may be shown by an- 
other experiment ? 

Experiments. — B. Observe the fibrous appearance of a piece of 
round of beef. Can you see any fat among the fibres? Scrape 
with a knife first one side, then the other, of one of the pieces of 
meat from which the juice has been squeezed, until only the fibres 
are left. Pick some of them apart with a needle. Try to break or 
tear them. C. Heat the mass of fibre, and note the effect. 

Each fibre is a bundle of tube-shaped cells filled 
chiefly with proteid substance. These tubes are cov- 
ered and bound together with a web cf white connec- 
tive tissue, threaded by tiny blood-vessels. Toward the 
ends of the muscles the fibres dwindle down till only a 
firm mass of connective tissue, called tendon, is left. 



146 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

The contents of the tubes and blood-vessels may be 
scraped out, leavmg these, with the connective tissue, 
in a pale-colored, stringy mass. 

258. Two facts important to bear in mind in cooking 
meat. — 1. Heat, by causing the collagen in the con- 
nective tissue to swell, tends to force the juices out of 
the muscle-fibres.^ 2. Dry heat hardens connective 
tissue. 

259. The pulp of meat consists chiefly of myosin, a jelly- 
like proteid similar to the fibrin of blood. Both myosin and 
fibrin are liquid during life, but clot after death.^ 

Directions for making Raw Beef Sandwiches (for 
Invalids) 

Cut juicy, lean beef into thin strips. Scrape the pulp from 
them, season it highly with salt and pepper, and spread between 
thin slices of bread. 

260. Microscopical examination of meat fibre. — Soak in salted 
water a few fibres of beef from leg or round. Examine them 
under a microscope, using a one-inch objective. Look at the ends 
of the fibres. Can you see that they are hollow tubes ? Observe 
the fine stripes (strice) on the fibres. The muscles of the stomach 
and some other organs are not striped. 

261. Tests for mineral salts in meat. — A. Heat a bit of meat 
in a crucible or evaporating dish over a Bunsen burner for several 

1 See § 244. Though collagen swells, a mass of connective tissue, 
as a whole, shrinks when heated. This shrinkage is caused by loss of 
water. 

2 The liquid forms, myosinogen ?iXi6. fibrinogen^ differ chemically 
from the clotted substances, bearing the same relation to them that 
caseinogen does to casein. (§ 169, note 1.) 



) 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 147 

hours, or until only ash is left. B. Into a test-tube of water put 
a pinch of common salt, and add a few drops of silver nitrate. The 
latter forms with the salt a white cloud. Xow add silver nitrate 
to beef-juice diluted with water. What salt does beef contain ? 

Directions for preparing Bottled Beef-juice 

Cut into small bits one pound of lean beef from the top round. 
Put it in a glass jar, put on the cover, and set the jar, wrapped in 
cloth, or supported on a trivet, in a kettle of cold water. Heat 
the water slowly to about 130° F., or till it steams, let it remain at 
this temperature four or five hours, then strain, pressing the meat 
to obtain all the juice. (For directions for serving, see p. 305.) 

Albuminous food being most easily digestible raw, 
raw beef-juice is desirable for persons with weak diges- 
tion. In preparing bottled beef-juice the object is to 
apply just heat enough to express the juice, without 
coagulating it. If the water in the kettle becomes too 
hot, the juice thickens and turns brown. 

262. Experiments showing the action of cold water and of salt 
upon meat. — A. Cover a bit of raw meat with cold water, and 
observe how quickly the water becomes red. What does this 
show ? Is anything besides blood drawn out ? 

B. Filter the water through filter-paper and heat the filtrate, 
i.e. the liquid that passes through. Has any albumin dissolved in 
the water ? 

C. Sprinkle a bit of raw meat with salt. What does the salt do 
to the juices of the meat? How do these afterward act upon the 
salt? 

What conclusions do you draw from these experiments with 
regard to (1) putting meat into water to wash it, and (2) salting 
meat before cooking it ? 



148 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

263. Care of uncooked meat. — As soon as meat is 
brought into the house, take it out of the wrapping- 
paper, wipe it with a damp cloth, cut out any part dis- 
colored by a meat-hook, and set it away in a cool place. 

HOW TO COOK TENDER MEAT: BROILING, ROASTING, 
BOILING 

264. When the whole piece of meat is to be eaten, we 
desire so to cook it as to retain all the juice. This is 
done by exposing it for a short time to heat intense 
enough to harden the albumin on its surface, thereby 
sealing up the juices inside, and then for a longer time 
to a lower temperature, to complete the cooking of these 
juices. Can you think of two reasons for not cooking it 
at a high temperature all the time? Would you choose 
a thick or a thin piece of meat for broiling ? Why ? 
One with much or little connective tissue ? Why ? 

265. Meat : tough and tender. — Meat, to be wholesome, 
must come from a healthy animal ; to be nutritious, from 
a well-nourished one. Much-used muscles absorb much 
food material, making rich, juicy meat. This is, how- 
ever, tougher than that of parts less used, because the 
connective tissue and fibre increase as well as the con- 
tents of the muscle-tubes. In which parts of the ox or 
sheep would you expect to find tender meat ? In which 
parts tougher, juicier meat ? 

266. How to know good beef. — The lean of good beef 
is firm, elastic, and, when first cut, purplish red, the sur- 
face becoming bright red and moist after exposure to 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 149 

the air. The tenderer cuts are fine-grained and well- 
mottled with fat ; a thick layer of firm, light straw-col- 
ored fat extends over the rib and loin cuts ; the kidney 
suet is white and crumbly. Flabby, dark, or coarse 
beef with yellow fat is poor ; if it has little fat, it is 
from an old or under-fed creature. 

267. The characteristics of good mutton and lamb are 
similar to those of good beef, excepting tliat the lean is 
lighter-colored, and the fat whiter. 

268. The best cuts for broiling are steaks from the loin 
of beef (sliort, porter-house, and sirloin), and rib or 
loin chops of mutton and lamb. (For other broiling 
pieces, see table, pp. 180-187.) 

Directions for broiling Beefsteak 

269. Time. — For a steak one inch thick, five or six 
minutes; one and one-half inches thick, eight to ten 
minutes. 

Steak properly broiled is puffy from the expansion 
into steam of the imprisoned moisture, well browned on 
the outside, and juicy and red, without being purplish, 
to within one-eighth of an inch of the surface. Steak 
less than one inch thick loses so much water by evapo- 
ration that the inside is dry before the outside is brown. 
(^Pid a platter to ivarm before beginning to broil the steak.') 

(1) To broil by a coal fire. — Have the coals glowing 
hot, without fiame or smoke. Grease a double broiler 
with beef fat, place the steak in it, and hold it near the 
coals wliile counting ten slowly. Turn the broiler, 
and hold the other side down for the same length of 



150 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

time. Continue to turn the meat about once in ten 
seconds for about one minute, or until it is well seared ; 
then hold it farther from the fire, turning occasionally 
until the surface is brown. ^ Just before taking it from 
the fire sprinkle with salt and pejDper, turning each side 
once more to the heat to cook the seasoning in. When 
the steak is cooked, lift it on to the platter, spread both 
sides with butter, or with Maitre d' Hotel butter, gar- 
nish, if you like, with water-cress and slices of lemon, 
or with parsley, and serve without delay. 

270. (2) To broil by gas. — Have the broiling oven 
hot. Lay the meat in a double broiler or directly on 
the rack over the pan. In the latter case turn the 
meat with two spoons to avoid piercing it. Proceed 
as in broiling over coals, except that the meat requires 
turning only three or four times. Turn down the gas 
and lower the pan, if necessary, after the meat is seared. 

271. Lamb and mutton chops are broiled like beefsteak, 
allowing six to eight minutes, according to thickness. 
Mutton chops may be slightly red in the middle ; lamb 
chops are usually preferred less rare. Tomato Sauce or 
green peas may be served with chops. 

272. Pan-broiling. — Meat cooked on a pan may be 
almost as well-flavored and juicy as broiled meat, if 
properly done. 

1 Reasons for turning the meat: 1. To prevent the escape of juice. 
The meat must be turned just before the juice forced out of the tissues 
nearest the heat begins to escape from the upper side ; if it overflows, 
it will drip and be lost. 2. To insure even cooking. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 151 

Use a cast-iron^ not a sheet-iron, pan, and let it become 
almost red-hot before putting the meat in. Rub it 
lightly with a bit of fat from the meat, let the meat lie 
on one side till seared, then turn it, and continue turn- 
ing it occasionally until done. If melted fat collects in 
the pan, pour it off. Season and serve like broiled meat. 
Turn chops on edge for a few moments to brown the fat. 

Is pan-broiling the same as what is commonly called 
" frying " ? Why not ? What objection is there to 
" frying " meat and other albuminous foods ? Are 
griddle cakes fried? (Methods of cooking, § 106.) 

Recipe for Maitre d'Hotel Butter 

Butter, % cupful. Pepper, a few grains. 

Lemon-juice, 1 tablespoonful. Parsley, cut fine, 1 tablespoonful. 
Salt, Yz teaspoonful. 

Cream the butter and stir in the other ingredients. 

Recipe for Tomato Sauce (for Meat) 
Tomato, 1 pint. A sprig of parsley. 

Chopped onion, 1 teaspoonful. Butter, )^ cupful. 
Whole cloves, 2. Flour, % cupful. 

A bit of bay-leaf. Salt, 1 teaspoonful. 

Pepper, yi teaspoonful. 

Cook the first five ingredients together for about ten 
minutes. Mix the others in a saucepan and strain into 
them the tomato mixture. Cook, stirring, till the sauce 
boils. 

273. Which is the largest, a short-steak, a porter- 
house, or a sirloin ? Observe that each contains 
one-half of one of the bones of the spine (yertehroe^ 



152 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

plural), and that between this bone and the kidney 
fat lies the tenderest part of the steak. These tender 
parts are sections of the tenderloin, a little-used muscle 
which extends along the spine from the rearmost rib 
to the hip joint, being thickest near the forward end 
of the hip-bone, where hip-bone sirloin steaks are cut. 

Beef grows tougher and coarser the farther down it 
lies on the flank. Which of the three loin cuts of 
steak has most flank ? Flank ends of steak should be 
trimmed off and used for soup or stew. Why not broil 
them ? Compare sirloin or porter-house steak with a 
lamb or mutton loin chop, finding in both spinal verte- 
bra, tenderloin, outside fat, kidney fat, and flank. Com- 
pare a rib chop with the cut of beef called prime roasting 
ribs. What advantage have loin over rib chops ? 

274. For roasting,^ as for broiling, tender cuts are 
best. Sirloin and porter-house roasts are compactly 
rolled ; rib pieces may be either roasted whole, forming 
a standing roast, or boned and rolled. Leaving in the 
bones improves the flavor, but the thin end of a stand- 
ing roast is likely to be overdone by the time the thick 
end is sufficiently cooked. 

Directions for roasting Beef 

275. Time. — Ten or twelve minutes to the pound. 
The smaller the piece of meat the shorter the time per 
pound. 

1 To roast meat, properly speaking, is to cook it before an open 
grate, a method superseded in this country by " oven-roasting," which 
is really baking. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 153 

In properly roasted beef, the outside fat is brown and 
crisp, the lean brown to a depth of. not more than one- 
fourth of an inch, the interior evenly red and full of 
juice. 

Have the oven at first as hot as for bread. ^ Skewer 
or tie the meat into compact form, place on a rack in a 
pan, skin side down, and dredge meat and pan with flour. 
In the pan put one tablespoonful of salt and one-fourth 
teaspoonful of pepper. If the meat is very lean, put a 
few bits of fat in the pan. When the beef is seared 
and the flour brown, reduce the heat, and baste the 
meat ; that is, dip over it the melted fat from the pan.^ 
Baste about once in ten minutes until done. After 
half an hour turn the roast over to brown the skin side. 

276. To make brown gravy. — After removing the 
roast to the plate, take out the rack and pour or skim 
off most of the fat from the liquid in the pan. Set the 
pan on the stove, and dredge into this liquid about 
three tablespoonfuls of flour. Add one and one-half 
cupfuls of boiling water, and boil five minutes, stir- 
ring. Taste to see how much salt and pepper are re- 
quired, add these, and strain into a gravy boat. If not 
brown enough, add a few drops of "kitchen bouquet." 
(Browning of flour, § 126.) 

1 The smaller the roast the hotter should be the oven. It is well to 
sear a small roast by holding each part of its surface in turn on a hot 
frying-pan ; if this is done, less heat is required in the oven. 

2 Reason for basting. — The fat and flour, aided by heat, form a 
crust, imprisoning the juices of the meat, and preventing the lean 
from charring. 



154 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

277. Experiment to show the effect of cold and of hot water 
upon meat. — Into each of two test-tubes put two bits of meat of 
tlie same size. Cover one with cold water, the other with hot 
water, and boil the latter for two or three minutes. After letting 
both stand for ten or fifteen minutes, observe («) differences in 
the appearance of the bits of meat, (b) in the appearance of the 
water in the two test-tubes. Which piece of meat has lost the 
most juice? Explain why. 

Should the cooking water for meat be cold or hot 
when the meat is put into it? Why? How may we 
contrive to retain the juice and yet not overcook the 
meat? Is it strictly correct to call meat properly 
cooked in water "boiled" meat? Which is higher 
flavored, roasted or so-called boiled meat? 

The great heat to which meat is exposed in broiling or 
roasting decomposes some of its constituents, producing 
new compounds of richer flavor. A temperature of 212° 
F. being too low to produce these chemical changes, the 
flavor of meat cooked in water is, by comparison, insipid. 

Directions for "boiling" a Leg of Mutton 

278. Time. — Fifteen minutes per pound. 

Cover the leg of mutton with boiling water, let this 
come to the boiling-point again, and boil five minutes ; 
skim off the coagulated albumin ("scum"); then sim- 
mer until the meat is tender. Serve with Caper Sauce, 
made by adding one-half cupful of capers^ drained, to one 
and one-half cupfuls of Drawn Butter (recipe on p. 203) 
made with the mutton liquor. 

279. Salt meats. — Corned beef, ham, and tongue, 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 155 

which are better for having some of their salt drawn 
out, shoukl be put to cook in cold water. After this 
boils, follow the directions for cooking a leg of mutton. 

The taste of Avater in which meat has been cooked 
shows that some of the substance of the meat has escaped 
into it ; save it, therefore, to use in soup-making. Can 
we use the cooking water from salt meat for soup? 

USES FOR THE GELATINOUS PARTS OF MEAT: 
SOUP-STOCK AND SOUPS 

280. Soup an economical dish. — Soup, by some people 
mistakenly thought to be an expensive luxury, is gen- 
erally a means of economy ; since a soup, tempting and 
nutritious, can be made of the cheapest materials, in= 
eluding remnants of food unfit for other use. Economy 
means management^ not saving merely, though some- 
times wrongly understood in the latter sense. Good 
economy includes wise spending and using ; it is as 
wasteful to broil meat too tough to be chewed or 
digested as it would be to throw away meat that might 
be used ; it is as prudent to purchase a small quantity 
of vegetables and seasonings, which will help to make 
a savory soup or stew out of material useless by itself, 
as to refrain from buying something not needed. 

SoUP-MAKING 

281. Soup-stock. — Soup-stock is the basis of all meat 
soups. It consists of the soluble portions of meat, vegeta- 
bles, and sometimes other ingredients dissolved in water. 



156 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Directions for making Soup-stock 

Raw meat and bone, about 2 pounds. 

Cooked meat, or meat and bone, about 1 pound. 

Cold water (fresh, or from cooked meat or vegetables), 3 quarts. 

To each pound of meat and bone allow of onion, carrot, turnip, 
cut into half-inch cubes, 1 heaping tablespoonful each.^ 

Celery, 1 stalk or 1 root. Salt, about Yz teaspoonful. 

A bit of bay-leaf. Peppercorns, 2, 

A sprig of parsley. or 

Pepper, a few grains. 

Have the bones sawed into inch lengths and split; 
cut the meat into inch cubes or smaller. Why? If 
the raw meat only is used, brown one-third of it in a 
little of the fat in a frying-pan.^ Let meat and bones 
soak in the water for one hour, then simmer in a cov- 
ered kettle four or five hours, or until the meat is in 
fragments. About one hour before taking the stock 
from the fire, add to it the vegetables and seasonings. 
When the vegetables are very soft strain the stock 
through a coarse strainer and set it aside for twenty- 
four hours, or until the fat solidifies on its surface. 
Remove every speck of this fat, saving it to try out, 
and if the stock is to be used for clear soup, clear it 
according to the directions on p. 161. 

Bone, commonly regarded as refuse, is called for in 
tiie Directions for making Soup-stock. If we compare 

1 Seasonings and flavorings may be varied or, in part, omitted. 

2 By this means the soup gains in flavor, though at the cost of some 
food value. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 157 

this stock with bouillon, or with any broth made from 
meat with little or no bone, we shall find that the first 
is jellied when cold, the second liquid. What is there 
in bones to make this difference ? 

A Study of Bone 

282. A. Examine the ends of a shin-bone sawed in two. 
Where is the bone the hardest? Where is it spongy? Where 
soft ? The soft substance is marrow. Try to bend or break the 
bone. Observe the tough fibrous covering on the ends of it. 

B. Put one piece of the bone in diluted hydrochloric acid (six 
parts of water to one part of acid) ; after a few days compare it 
with the other piece. Has the acid changed the shape of the bone? 
Its size? How has it affected it? See if you can tie it in a knot. 
What makes bone hard? What, then, has the acid taken out of 
the bone? 

C. Tie a wire around the other piece of bone, and lay it for 
half an hour in a hot coal-fire. Remove it by means of the wire. 
How has it been changed? Does it break easily? What part of 
the bone has been burned? 

283. Structure and composition of bone. — Bone is the 
hardest of animal tissues, yet it is one-half Avater; the 
other half consists of about two-thirds mineral, and 
one- third animal matter, the mineral being largely 
calcium phosphate, commonly called phosphate of lime; 
the animal matter chiefly fat and collagen^. In the 
centre of hollow bone is a mass of fatty stuff, the mar- 
row. Surrounding, and, in some cases, forming the end 
of the bone is the flexible, slippery substance called 
cartilage, or gristle; and, connecting bones at the joints, 

1 Often called ossein in bones. 



158 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

are bands or ligaments of cartilage. Cartilage may be 
considered soft bone, since it differs from bone mainly 
in having less mineral matter. The bones of children 
and young animals are soft because cartilaginous; the 
older the individual grows, the harder the bones become. 
The two kinds of material in bone may be separated by 
soaking in acid, which dissolves the inorganic substance; 
or by burning, which destroys the organic. 

284. How cooking affects bones. — By long cooking in 
water the insoluble collagen and other gelatinoids of 
connective tissue, tendon, cartilage, and bone are 
changed to gelatin, soluble in hot water. ^ 

But will hot water best draw out the meat juice? 
How may we contrive to extract all possible food value 
from both meat and bone ? And how may we also give 
to soup that rich flavor produced only by heating meat 
to above 212° F.? All these points must be considered 
if we mean to make the best possible soup out of our 
materials. 

285. The soup-kettle or stock-pot. — Have for stock- 
making a deep kettle with a tight-fitting cover; the 
tighter the cover the smaller is the amount of water 
lost by evaporation. In an ordinary kettle, stock may, 
during cooking, lessen by one-half; in a soup-digester 
with a steam-tight, valved cover, evaporation is so slight 
that one pint of water instead of one quart may be 
allowed to one pound of meat and bone. 

1 The change from collagen to gelatin, like that from raw starch to 
starch-paste, is a process of hydration, i.e. of combination with water. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 159 

Fresh material may be added to that already in the 
stock-pot, provided that once a week the contents are 
removed and the pot cleaned. Fresh material must be 
combined with "left-overs" for a satisfactory stock, 
cooked meat alone yielding too little soluble material. 
Fresh herbs and, unless a varied stock of cooked vege- 
tables is on hand, a few fresh vegetables are required 
for flavoring. 

286. Materials for soup-stock. — Put raw-meat trim- 
mings cut off by the butcher, flank ends of steak, etc., 
into one jar, bits of cooked meat and bone, except 
mutton fat, which is rank in flavor, into another, first 
rinsing in cold water pieces left on the plates at table. 
Keep also water in which meat has been cooked, and, 
separately^ because it sours in about two days — quicker 
than meat-liquor spoils — the cooking water from rice 
and vegetables. Use sparingly that from strong-fla- 
vored vegetables, such as onion and turnip, and do not 
use cabbage or potato water at all. 

Celery and asparagus water may be used either for 
soup-stocks or for cream-of-vegetable soups. (Chap. 
VIII, sect. 3.) Keep by themselves, and separate 
from one another, if possible, remnants of vegetables, 
rice, macaroni, etc. 

287. How to choose soup meat. — What sort of meat 
shall we choose for soup-making, — tender or tough, 
with bone or Avithout ? What advantage has the meat 
from young creatures over that from old ? Soup meat 
should include some fat, because tlie cake formed by it 



160 THEOEY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

when cold, if kept unbroken, helps to preserve the 
stock. 

Compare a cut from the loin of beef with one from 
the leg (shin). Compare a shin of beef with a knuckle 
of veal (the joint of a calf's hind leg). Which will 
yield the most juice ? The most gelatin ? The highest 
flavor ? Which of these cuts would you expect to find 
the cheapest ? Why ? 

Helpful Hints about making and using 
Soup-stock 

1. Have all trimmings sent home by the butcher to 
be used in making stock. 

2. On account of its strong, fatty flavor, avoid using 
much mutton in stock containing other meat. 

3. For white stock use veal, or veal and chicken ; 
for dark brown stock use beef, part of it browned ; 
and brown all the vegetables. Caramel or Kitchen 
Bouquet is used to darken and flavor stock. 

4. Stock made without vegetables keeps best in hot 
weather. When taking out a portion of such stock for 
soup, add for each pint of it one heaping tablespoonful 
of each vegetable included in the Directions for making 
Soup-stock, cook them in it one hour, and strain. 

6. A little salt helps to preserve stock, but it must 
be used sparingly at first, the stock growing Salter as it 
lessens by evaporation. 

6. Do not try to extract the last bit of gelatin from 
bones ; the result will be glue, not soup. 

7. If you must use the stock the day it is made, skim 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 161 

off what fat you can, and remove the rest as completely 
as possible with absorbent paper, or with a bit of ice 
wrapped in cloth. The fat hardens on the cloth and 
can be scraped off. 

8. Cook vegetables, macaroni, and other materials to 
be served in soup in a small quantity of stock, and add 
this with them to the portion to be served. If, how- 
ever, the stock is weak, so that it would be improved by 
boiling down, cook this material in the whole quantity 
to be sent to table. 

9. Stock used instead of water in meat sauces, gra- 
vies, and stews makes them richer. By boiling meat in 
stock the stock itself is enriched. 

In spite of care in keeping soup-stock below the boil- 
ing-point, some albumin coagulates, part settling, part 
rising as scum. Skimming off this scum lessens the food 
value of the soup, already small ; soup, both skimmed 
and cleared, is a stimulant merely, still, for the sake of 
appearances, a perfectly clear soup is sometimes desired. 

To clear soup-stock. — Put into a saucepan the stock to 
be cleared, and into it stir the whites and crushed shells 
of as many eggs as there are quarts of stock. Heat and 
stir until it has boiled for two minutes ; then keep it 
hot, without letting it simmer, for twenty minutes, in 
order that the albumin, as it coagulates, may entangle 
every solid particle in the stock. Pour through a fine 
strainer held above double cheese-cloth laid over another 
strainer. The first strainer keeps the scum from clog- 
ging the cloth. 



162 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Recipes for Meat Soups 

The following soups may be made from either cleared 
or uncleared stock. Season them to taste before serv- 
ing. For macaroni and vermicelli soups beef stock is 
preferable ; for rice and barley soups, mutton or 
chicken stock. 

Tomato soup. — Add to one pint of stock one-half can 
of tomatoes, stewed and strained, and one-half teaspoon- 
ful of sugar. 

Mixed vegetable soup. — {In whiter.) To one quart 
of stock add two heaping tablespoonfuls each of chopped 
onion fried, chopped celery, and turnip either chopped 
or cut with a vegetable cutter, one tablespoonful of 
carrot prepared like the turnip, and one cupful of 
cooked and strained tomato. (^In summer.) Omit the 
tomato and onion, and add small green peas, and 
flowerets of cauliflower, asparagus tips, or all three. 

Noodle soup. — To one quart of stock add one -fourth 
cupful of noodles. 

Macaroni, vermicelli, rice, and barley soups take their 
names from the material served in them. Serve with 
these soups crusty bread (plain rolls, or inch thick 
slices from a French loaf), toasted crackers buttered, 
or croutons. The dextrin in these, like the extractives 
of meat, stimulate digestion. (Directions for Preparing 
Croutons on p. 249.) 

288. Food value of soup and soup meat. — A strong 
broth contains only about Ave per cent of nutritious 
material. Soup as ordinarily made is weaker than this. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 163 

Yet soup has a strong meat flavor, while the meat left 
in the soup kettle is almost tasteless. This is because 
the extractives, which give meat its flavor, pass wholly 
into the stock. The extractives, although not nutri- 
tious, stimulate the secretion of gastric juice. The 
combined stimulating and warming effect of soup pre- 
pares the stomach for solid food. 

Soup meat, if well seasoned, may be used in cro- 
quettes and rechauffes (§ 299). It is found to be 
better digested if flavored with meat extract, or if 
served after a meat soup. 

What class of foodstuffs does gastric juice act upon ? 
Which of these are found in meat ? How does the 
gelatin in soup help to nourish the body ? 

GELATINE JELLIES 

289. Gelatin extracted by steam under pressure, 
purified, and dried, is sold as gelatine i for making 
jellies and desserts. One ounce of gelatine will stiffen 
from three and one-half to four cupfuls of water in ordi- 
nary weather. In hot weather or on a wet day more is 
required; in cold weather, less. If fruit is to be molded 
in the jelly, use one and one-half ounces of gelatine. 

290. General directions for using gelatine. — First soften 
the gelatine by soaking in cold water,^ then dissolve it 

1 Pronounced like gelatin. 

2 Cooper's gelatine softens in ten minutes ; Knox's requires at least 
fifteen ; some kinds take longer. Follow the directions on box. 
Granulated gelatine is more easily measured than that in sheets or 
shredded. A two-ounce box of granulated gelatine holds five table- 
spoonfuls. 



164 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

in boiling water, hut never boil it. If stirred much 
while hot the gelatine may become stringy and refuse 
to jelly ; for this reason, do not stir to help sugar dis- 
solve, but keep the gelatine mixture hot by setting the 
bowl over hot water. Strain it through cheese-cloth or 
muslin doubled, into a mold, and set it away to cool, 
in summer on ice. It will jelly in from three to six 
hours. The larger the proportion of gelatine to liquid, 
the sooner it sets, but too much makes the jelly taste of 
gelatine, and also makes it tough. Use a mold of 
earthen or enamelled ware wet with cold water just 
before it is filled. See that it stands level while the 
jelly is cooling. 

Recipes for Gelatine Jellies 

Lemon Jelly 

Gelatine, 1 ounce, or if granulated, '2)4 tablespoonfuls. 
Cold water, }4 cupful. Sugar, 1 cupful. 

Boiling water, 2^ cupfuls. Lemon juice, }4 cupful. 

Soak the gelatine in the cold water, add the boiling 
water, then the sugar, and stir till the latter is dissolved. 
Add the lemon juice, and strain through a cloth wrung 
out of hot water and laid over a wire strainer into a 
mold wet with cold water. 

To vary the flavor, boil in the water one inch of stick 
cinnamon^ and the thinly shaved peel (yellow only) of 
one or two lemons. 

For Coffee Jelly use ojie cupful of strong boiled coffee} 

1 Made with two tablespoonfuls of coffee to one cupful of water. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 165 

and two of boiling water. Strain through a fine cloth, 
doubled. 

Serve these jellies turned out in a glass dish, with 
cream, whipped or unwhipped ; or make them a little 
less stiff, and serve lightly broken up, as " Sparkling 
Jelly." 

291. The manufacture of gelatine. — Gelatine is ob- 
tained by extracting under pressure the gelatinous parts 
of cleaned bones, horns, hoofs, and hides of animals. 
The first product strained off is made into size and 
glue ; the rest, purified by treatment with sulphuric 
acid, is the gelatine of commerce, which is used not only 
in jellies, but for medicine capsules, photograph films, 
and many other purposes. Gelatine is made also from 
fish-bones, and a very pure kind, called isinglass, from 
the air-bladder of the sturgeon. 

292. Digestion of gelatin. — Gelatin is more readily 
digested than collagen. Like proteids, gelatinoids are changed 
to peptones by the gastric and pancreatic juices. 

HOW TO COOK TOUGH MEAT: STEWING AND 
BRAISING 

293. We have seen that tender meat is cooked chiefly 
to improve its color and flavor, not to make it more 
digestible ; but tough meat requires first of all that its 
connective tissue be softened to enable the digestive 
juices to reach the albuminous matter within. What 
substance in plant foods corresponds to connective tissue 



166 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

in meat ? How does this have to be cooked ? By stew- 
ing, tough meat may be softened with the least possible 
sacrifice of juiciness and flavor. 

Recipe for Lamb Stew 

Breast of lamb, 1>^ pounds. 

Boiling water about 1 pint. 

Potatoes, 4, medium-sized, quartered and parboiled. ^ 

Onion, 1, about lyi inches in diameter, sliced. 

Rice, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Tomato, strained, 1 cupful, 

or 
Tomato ketchup, 1 tablespoonful. 

Salt and pepper. 

Brown the onions in a little of the fat in a saucepan ; 
put with them the meat cut roughly into cube-shaped 
pieces about one and one-half inches thick, and sprinkled 
with salt and pepper. Cover them with boiling water, 
heat this to the boiling-point again, then let it simmer 
directly over the heat for two hours ; or cook it over 
hot water for three hours, or until the meat is tender. 
After one hour of simmering add the rice ; half an hour 
before dishing the stew add the potatoes ; when they 
are done remove the bones and pieces of fat, stir in the 
tomato or ketchup, add salt and pepper, if needed, and 
serve. 

How does stewing differ from boiling ? From soup- 
making ? Why not leave the meat whole ? Why not 
cut it as small as for soup ? 

1 Boiled by themselves for five minutes. Why is this done ? 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 167 

294. What makes a stew good. — In a good stew 
the meat and vegetables are tender, the broth thick 
and savory. Onion, ketchup, minced parsley, tomato, 
Worcestershire sauce, or other vegetables and condi- 
ments may be used to give flavor. Lamb or mutton 
stew may be thickened with rice ; in beef stew flour is 
commonly used. Stew may be served in a platter within 
a border of boiled or steamed rice. 

295. For a brown stew, the meat and sometimes the 
vegetables are browned in hot fat before being simmered. 
A brown stew without vegetables is a fricassee (French, 
fricasser^ to fry). 

Start a brown stew in cold water. Why ? 

Dumplings for Brown Beef Stew. — Sift together two 
cupfuls of flour ^ two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and 
one teaspoonful of salt. Stir in enough 77iilk or tvater to 
make a stiff drop-batter. When the stew is cooked, set 
it where it will boil. Drop in the dumpling mixture 
by tablespoonfuls, cover closely, and boil the broth 
steadily without lifting the cover, for twelve minutes. 
Boiling the meat for a short time after it is tender will 
not harden it. 

How do dumplings differ from biscuit ? Why is no 
shortening used in biscuit ? 

296. Choosing stew meat. — Stew meat should be se- 
lected from a cheap cut, as higher-priced meat is better 
cooked in other ways ; it should contain bone enough 
to make the broth gelatinous and well-flavored, also fat, 
since lean that lies next to fat is less watery than an 



168 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

all-lean piece. What cuts of beef, of lamb or mutton, 
and of veal, possess these points ? ^ (See table on pp. 
180 to 187.) Part of the melted fat may be skimmed 
off before thickening the stew ; the flour or rice will 
absorb the rest. 

297. Braising is steaming meat in its own juices in 
the oven — a method suitable for solid pieces of meat 
not tender enough for roasting, but of better quality 
than those utilized in soups and stews. (For cuts of 
meat suitable for braising, see table.) The reten- 
tion of steam under a cover, together with basting with 
the broth, keeps the meat moist enough to permit the 
juices to flow, while the oven heat is intense enough 
to develop a rich flavor in both meat and broth. 

Recipe for Rolled Flank of Beef (Plate X) 

One flank steak, or one pound of top-round steak one-half inch 
thick. 

Suet, 2 or 3 small slices. Carrot, cubed, ^/. cupful. 

Onion, 1 small one, sliced. Boiling water or stock, 1 cupful. 

Stuffing made from : — 

Soft bread crumbs, 1 cupful. Celery cut fine, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Melted butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. Salt, y^ teaspoonful. 

Parsley cut fine, 2 tablespoonfuls. Paprika, }i teaspoonful. 

Onion juice, % teaspoonful. 

Trim the edges of the steak, spread over it the stuff- 
ing, roll and tie it, and lay it on the onion and carrot 

1 Top round of beef may be larded, browned, and stewed very 
slowly for four or five hours. Cooked in this way with vegetables 
it is called Beef a la Mode. 



PLATE X. 




Top Sirloin ready for Roasting. 



a, \eg of mutton (hind) ; h, fore- 
quarter of mutton (rib porti:):i 
separated from shoulder). 




Rolled Flank of Beef, larded, braised, and arranged on a 
Bed of Vegetables. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 169 

in a pan, with the suet on top. Pour the water or stock 
into the pan ; cook closely covered for twenty minutes 
or more in a hot oven ; then uncover, and cook thirty 
minutes longer. Serve with Brown Gravy made from 
the drippings in the pan. 

The steak may be larded instead of covered with suet. 
Insert with a larding-needle two rows of salt-pork 
strips Qardoons) two inches long and one-fourth of an 
inch thick. 

Helpful Hints about Braising and Stewing 

298. 1. Remnants of cooked meat may be stewed, 
either by themselves, or with uncooked meat. 

2. Only the best portions of stew meat should be 
browned ; very coarse or gristly pieces may be simmered 
by themselves, and only the broth added to the stew. 

3. To make sure that the stew shall not boil, cook it 
in a double boiler, allowing half again as much time as 
for cooking by direct heat. Stew meat that has boiled 
may look tender because its fibres, loosened by the 
softening of the connective tissue, fall apart; but the 
fibres themselves will be found hard to chew and digest. 

4. In stewing, add water from time to time, enough 
to keep the meat covered. If the broth is too watery, 
boil it down before pouring it over the meat. 

5. Braised meat may be cooked uncovered the latter 
part of the time. 



170 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

WARMED-OVER DISHES (RECHAUFFieSi) 

299. Delicious meat dishes may be prepared from 
remnants of cooked meat such as thriftless house- 
keepers throw away and unskilful ones warm over 
carelessly in a frying-pan. 

Learn to combine acceptably whatever materials you 
have on hand, varying the regular recipes to suit the 
case. For example, you may substitute bread-crumbs 
or macaroni for potatoes, stewed tomatoes for gravy, 
rice for macaroni, and so on. Be sure to make the dish 
look attractive, and if possible find for it an appetizing 
name. Skill in using up left-overs provides many a 
dainty and saves many a dollar. 

300. How to prepare meat to be used in rechauffes. — 

Remove all bone and gristle, and, when the meat is to 
be hashed, trim off the fat. Save the bones for soup- 
stock, the fat for trying out. Cut the meat in cubes 
or thin slices, or chop it fine. If tender and well- 
cooked, take care to reheat it only, not recooh it ; if 
tough or underdone, simmer it until tender, saving 
the cooking water to make a sauce. Season it rather 
highly, since meat after cooling is less savory than 
when fresh-cooked. 

Recipes 

Directions for making hash. — Mix and heat together 
equal parts of cliopped cooked meat and chopped boiled 
potatoes. If dry, add for each pint of hash one tahle- 
1 French, rechauffer, to heat again. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 171 

spoonful of butter or drippings^ and tivo of hot water or 

stock. Season with salt and pepper^ adding onion juice, 

parsley, or other seasoning, if desired. 

To brown hash, add two teaspoonfuls of milk ; let the 

hash cook unstirred till brown on one side ; fold like 

omelet. 

Corned Beef Hash 

Boiled corned beef (about oiie-fourth fat), 1 part. 

Boiled potatoes, 2 parts. 

Onion juice, a few drops. 
Pepper. 

Chop the meat moderately fine, push it to one side of 
the tray ; chop the potatoes and mix them with the 
meat. Season and heat over hot water, or in a frying- 
pan over moderate heat. 

Minced meat on toast. — Chop fine any cold, lean meat. 
Season, and warm in gravy or sauce sufficient to moisten 
it. Spread on slices of crisp toast dipped in salted 
water. (§ 163.) 

Chartreuse of Rice and Meat 

Rice, 1 cupful. Hot water, stock or gravy 

Cooked meat, minced, 2 cupfuls. enough to enable the meat 
Bread or cracker crumbs, % cupful. to be packed solidly. 
Salt. Pepper. 

Other seasonings to taste ; e.g. with chicken, two tea- 
spoonfuls of parsley, fine cut, and celery salt; with veal, 
two tahlespoonfuls minced onion fried in butter, and ten 
or twelve drops of lemon juice ; with mutton or lamb, 
fried onion and minced celery, or celery salt ; with beef, 
fried onion. 



172 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Boil the rice. (For directions, see p. 75.) Prepare 
and mix the other ingredients. Line a buttered mold 
with a one-half inch layer of boiled rice, well pressed 
down ; pack in the meat mixture ; cover it with rice ; 
set the bowl in hot water, and steam for about forty -five 
minutes. Turn out of the mold and serve with Tomato 
Sauce (p. 151) around it. 

Curry of Mutton 

To each pint of finely chopped mutton use : — 

Butter, 1 tablespoonful. Salt, y^, teaspoonfuL 

Stock or water, 1 cupful. Pepper, a few grains. 

Flour, 1 tablespoonful. Curry powder, 1 teaspoonful. 

Mix in a saucepan the butter, flour, and seasoning ; 
add stock or water, and cook till thick. Mix in the 
meat ; when hot turn out on a platter. Serve with a 
border of boiled rice. (For Directions, see p. 75.) 

Section 2. Meat: Cuts, Marketing- and Food Value 

Here's to the housewife that's thrifty. 

— Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 

The secret of thrift is knowledge. Knowledge of domestic economy 
saves income ; knowledge of sanitary laws saves health and life. 

— Charles Kingsley. 

301. Section 1 has made us familiar with a number 
of cuts of beef and mutton, and with ways of cooking 
them. In the market we find all these cuts and many 
more ; in order to select wisely from them the house- 
keeper must study them until she not only knows 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 173 

one kind of meat from another, and poor meat from 
good, but can readily recognize any cut, trimmed or 
untrimmed, and knows the market value and food 
value of each. 

302. How beef is cut up for sale.^ — Let us see first in 
what shape the butcher receives his stock-in-trade. The 
beef-creature is sent to market split into halves called 
''sides of beef." These the butcher divides, first into 
forequarter and hindquarter, then into pieces (see Dia- 
gram I, p. 188), and these into cuts to suit customers. 
The weight of a side of beef as it hangs by the hind leg 
throws the shoulder-bone forward and the thigh-bone 
backward, reversing the angles which, in the living 
animal, they make with the back-bone, and altering 
the position of the muscles attached to them. 

303. Description of the cuts of beef. — Upon severing 
the forequarter from hindquarter just back of the ribs, 
we recognize on the latter the small end of the loin. 
The first few steaks cut here are short in the flank and 
have little tenderloin ; they are called short, club, or 
Delmonico steaks. Porter-house cuts lie between these and 
the junction of the hip-bone with the spine, and the 
sirloin between this joint and the thigh-bone. In the 
hollow of the loin lie the kidneys, surrounded by hard 
fat, the suet. A solid chunk of flesh below the sirloin 
is known, queerly enough, as top sirloin; the round, of 

1 Customs with regard to cutting up meat vary somewhat in different 
parts of the country. Diagrams and descriptions in this text-book 
follow New York City customs. 



174 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

which top sirloin is really part, consists of the mass of 
flesh back of the hip-bone. A streak of gristle running 
down through this portion divides it into '' top " and 
" bottom " round, properly inside and outside round, but 
called otherwise because the round is always laid on the 
block inner side up. (Plate IX.) The leg severed 
from the round at the lower end of the thigh-bone 
furnishes upper and lower shin. The rump, a wedge- 
shaped piece of coarse meat containing the lower 
vertebrae and the end of the hip-bone, comes out 
between the sirloin and round. 

304. The most notable feature of the forequarter is 
the chest with its arch of ribs, the first six of which, 
counting forward from the loin, are, both from quality 
and from position, termed prime ribs. Over the seven 
chuck ribs lies the shoulder-blade, which appears at the 
seventh rib as a streak of yellow gristle, and grows 
bonier and thicker from there forward. Across the 
ribs lies the cross-rib, a boneless piece of flesh, corre- 
sponding to the top sirloin in the hindquarter. The 
diaphragm inside the ribs forms the thin, coarse strip 
called skirt steak. The brisket, adjacent to chuck, neck, 
and fore leg, includes the breast-bone and part of the 
four forward ribs. 

The muscular wall covering and supporting the crea- 
ture's belly is sold in sections (Diag. I) as plate, navel, 
and flank. The floating ribs end in the navel. The 
flank includes the flank steak, a thin strip of lean em- 
bedded in fat. 



PLATE IX. 




a, chuck ; h, prime ribs. 




«, round of beef with slices of top round taken off. h «at-bone sirloin steak, trimmed : 
trimmings shown. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 175 

305. Cuts of mutton and lamb. — Mutton and lamb are 
usually quartered like beef. The loin is cut into chops. 
Hip chops, corresponding to sirloin steaks, are sold as 
loin chops, but are inferior, containing bone. The neck 
and shoulder sell cheap ; the latter is cut for roasting 
with the fore leg, and if desired, with two or more ribs 
left on. " Leg-of-mutton '^ is the hind leg together with 
what corresponds to the round in beef. A sheep be- 
tween two and three years old furnishes the best mut- 
ton. The age of mutton may be told by breaking the 
joint of the fore leg ; the bones in a lamb are ridged, 
the less distinct these ridges, the older is the animal. 
By what signs would you know good beef ? Good 
mutton ? 

306. Cuts of veaL — Of the forequarter cuts of veal, 
the breast and shoulder furnish stew meat or second- 
quality roasting pieces, and the ribs are sold together 
as rack of veal, or separately as chops. As in beef, the 
hindquarter cuts are choicer. Roasting pieces or steaks 
and chops are cut from both loin and leg, slices from 
the leg being called cutlets. These contain a section of 
the round leg-bone. Breast and leg, tough in the full- 
grown animal, are tender in the calf. Hard mutton-fat 
purified makes tallow. 

307. How good veal looks. — The best veal, that of a 
calf about two months old, is pale pink or flesh-colored, 
with clear white fat. White lean veal is unfit to eat. 

308. Cuts of pork ; the appearance of good pork. — 

The ribs and loin of pork are sold for roasting, or as 



176 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

chops. Hams are the hind legs, salted and smoked ; 
bacon, the flank similarly prepared. The thick layers 
of fat on the back and flank are commonly salted. 
The strips or '' leaves " of kidney fat are " tried out," 
or rendered, and jDurified, to make leaf -lard; fat from 
other parts of the hog yield lard of poorer quality. 
Fat salt pork of good quality is white, or faintly tinged 
with pink, and has a thin rind. Fresh pork should be 
pale red and firm, Avith white fat. Trimmings of fat 
and lean chopped and packed in cleaned intestines form 
sausages. 

309. Diseased pork. — Pork is more likely than any other 
kind of meat to be diseased. Diseased or measly pork looks 
lumpy or speckled. The specks are coiled-iip worms {tri- 
chince), which make their way into the muscles of the hog, 
remaining there inactive until taken into the human body, 
where they produce trichinosis, a disease often fatal. Smok- 
ing does not kill trichina, but thorough cooking kills this as 
well as other disease-producing forms of life in food. To 
be safe, never buy speckled pork. 

310. Internal organs used for food. — The tongue, liver, 
kidneys, heart, and some other organs of the ox and 
sheep are used for food. Tripe, the lining of a beef's 
stomach, is sold boiled. The brains, pancreas, and 
thymus gland of calves are considered dainties ; the latter 
two are termed sweet-breads. 

311. Economy in marketing ; the cheapest meat not al- 
ways the most economical. — Since less than one-fourth 
of the weight of a dressed beef consists of very tender 
meat, these tender portions are necessarily expensive. 
The less tender cuts, being more nutritious, are more 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 177 

economical ; and, if properly cooked, are good eating, 
better, indeed, than higher-priced cuts badly cooked. 
The value of any cut depends not alone upon the qual- 
ity of the edible portion, but also upon the proportion 
this bears to the refuse (bone, gristle, etc.). For ex- 
ample, prime ribs are even more expensive than they 
seem, because the purchaser pays for so much bone. 
Again, a cheap piece, containing much refuse, may be 
less economical than a higher-priced one, all of which 
is eatable. Veal is never economical. Being really im- 
mature beef, it is dry and poor, both in flavor and in 
food value, notwithstanding which it is expensive. 

312. Meat must be kept to make it tender. — Recently- 
killed meat is tender, but soon stiffens, owing to the 
clotting of certain proteids (§ 259), softening so as to 
be fit to eat only after being "hung" for some time. 
Beef should be kept at least for three weeks, mutton 
longer. 

313. The food value of meat. — Because we have teeth 
adapted to chewing both animal and vegetable food,^ 
and digestive juices capable of dissolving both, we be- 
lieve that a mixed diet is our natural one. ' In almost 
every part of the world flesh is eaten, in some places 
the flesh of animals we should not think of using for 
food. So much is taste a matter of custom that the 
idea of eating horseflesh is unpleasant to most people 
who have never tried it; yet horseflesh is perfectly 

1 Vegetable food means all food from plant sources. 

N 



178 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

wholesome, and in some parts of Europe is commonly- 
sold for food. 

Practically all the proteids in meat are assimilated,^ 
but one-third or more of the proteids of vegetable food 
goes to waste in the body. This is accounted for by 
the closer likeness of animal food to the tissues of the 
human body. Beef and mutton are grain and grass 
made partly ready for us by the ox and the sheep, 
whose digestive organs are better fitted than ours to 
take care of a purely vegetable diet. Meat-eating 
nations surpass in vigor those that live mainly on fruit 
and grains. 

American and English people, however^ are in more dan- 
ger of eating too much meat than too little. Meat three 
times a day is probably unnecessary for any one, and 
hurtful except to people actively working or exercis- 
ing. Since only a certain amount can be made use 
of, no matter how much is swallowed, the system is 
overtaxed in getting rid of the surplus. Take care, 
therefore, that the meat bill is not out of proportion 
to other household expenses, and that the children are 
not made cross, and the men in the family dyspeptic, 
by too free use of this concentrated, stimulating food. 

314. Red meat, such as beef and mutton, is more stimu- 
lating than the ivhite meat of veal and poultry. Beef is the 
most nutritious of meats; mutton comes next, veal and 
lamb being less nutritious than the flesh of full-grown 
creatures. Corned meats lose in food value by the drawing 

1 Assimilation is the taking up of digested food into the tissues ; 
assimilate means literally " to make like." 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 179 

out of their juice into the brine ; but dried or smoked meat, 
pound for pound, contains more nutriment than fresh meat. 

315. Digestibility of meat. — Of the comparative diges- 
tibility of different kinds of meats little is known, except 
that some kinds digest much more rapidly than others. In gen- 
eral, short-fibred flesh, such as that of some kinds of game, 
the breast of chicken, and the tenderest beef and mutton, 
remain in the stomach for a shorter time than coarse-fibred 
meats. The muscular tissue of heart and kidneys, being 
peculiarly tough and close, is hard to digest. Pork is too 
fat to be easily digested. 

316. Experiment to illustrate the gastric digestion of meat. — 

Put a few bits of raw lean meat into a test-tube, and cover them 
with water; add a little pepsin and a few drops of hydrochloric 
acid. (§ 161 and footnote.) At the end of one hour and a half, 
and at intervals afterward, examine the meat, noting its gradual 
solution. 

Reading. — Fulton Market is described and pictured in the 
American Kitclien Magazine for January, 1896, Vol. IV, p. 149. 
Home Economics contains a good chapter on " Marketing," pp. 168- 
201. 

Foods and Beverages gives pp. 91-114 to meats. "Feeding 
the World" (p. 277 of same book) is an account of the trans- 
portation of cattle, grain, etc. In the Boston School-kitchen 
Text-hook the position of the different qualities of meat in the 
animal's body is well described, pp. 55-59. The Chautauquan for 
December, 1896 (Vol. XXIV, p. 332), contains a description of the 
" Markets of Some Great Cities." 



180 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



6 

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g 

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Best quality for roast- 
ing and broiling. 


'6 
'o 

Xi 
73 

a 

a 
ti 

o 

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6 


Lean, mostly tender; fat on 
edges ; little bone. Sirloin 
steaks : 1, Hip-bone sirloin, 
next to the porter-house, 
with large tenderloin, is the 
best; 2, flat-bone sirloin 
second choice. Larger ten- 
derloin, round-bone sirloin, 
poorest. 


6 

a 

M 

(V 

1 

1 

-a 

o 
H 


eg 
o 


In slices: a, one to two 
inches thick: Del- 
monico, porter-house, 
and sirloin steaks; 
b, thicker slices for 
roasting. 


Sold either whole or in 
halves. In latter case, 
aitch-bone is split in 
two. 


o 

1 

Hi g 

-< o 
w 

-^ 


Loin. 

All between first 
rib and rear 
end of hip- 
bone. 


.9 

O 

P5 



I 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 



181 



Excellent for braizing, 
pot-roast, and beef a 
la mode, also for beef 
juice and beef tea; 
fairly good roasted or 
broiled. 

Pot-roast, soup, mince- 
meat. 


0) 

o 
y, 

O) 

la 

1-^ 


1 

2 


bD 

.9 
§ 

fcX) 


Solid piece of juicy, fairly 
tender, lean, bordered with 
fat. Good meat has thick 
piece of fat between top and 
bottom round. 

Similar to top round, but 
tougher, has streaks of 
gristle. 


f 

o 

1 

a 


Similar in quality to loin, but 
has more bone and no ten- 
derloin. 


Is 

■'1 

s'g 

S 2 
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2 2 

CO 


Sliced, or cut thick. Best 
part of bottom round 
sometimes cut with 
top for dealer's advan- 
tage. 

Cut thick. 


In steaks, or for roasts. 


Sold in pieces containing 
upper parts of two or 
more ribs; may be 
boned and rolled ; with 
ribs left in is called 
"standing roast." 


03 

h 
u 

6 


Round. 

1. Top: inside of 

thigh. 

2. Bottom: out- 

side of thigh. 


Top Sirloin. 
Between sirloin 
and round. 


to 'S 

S X 


Blade. 
7th, 8th, and 9th 
ribs. 



182 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



i 

H 

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Braizing, pot-roasting, or 
stew ; steaks broiled. 


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THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 



183 



73 

a 
d 

a 

O 
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1. Stewed or boiled. 

2. Rolled and braized. 
(Should not be corned, 

because it has no fat 
or bone to protect its 
juices.) 


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Navel. 
Middle part of 
belly. 


Flank, below the 
loin. 

1. Thick flank. 

2. Flank steak. 


125 

O 

o 
o 


o 

1 


Skirt Steak (dia- 
phragm) . 
Inside of plate 
and navel. 



184 



THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



6 

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Roasted ; chops fried. 


Cutlets fried ; Jricandeau 
roasted. 




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thicker slices for fri- 
candeau. 


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Loin. 
Includes what in 
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rump. 


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Shoulder. 
Includes fore leg 
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THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 



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THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 



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Si 

c 

73 

a 

o 


Usually cured, salted, 
and smoked, then 
boiled, or sliced and 
fried; sometimes 
roasted fresh. 


o 

fcJO CD 

o ^ 


Cured, salted, and 
smoked; cooked like 
ham. Sometimes 
roasted fresh. 


Cured, salted, and 
smoked ; broiled or 
fried. 


Nearly all bone. 


Solid, lean, with layer of fat 
half an inch thick or more, 
on one side. 


5 

< 


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CO 

1 

a 

h 

a bJC 


a 
a 

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Sold whole or in chops. 


Whole, in halves, or 
sliced (after being 
smoked) . 


B 

a 


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In rectangular pieces, 
with the skin (rind) 
left on ; sliced thin for 
purchasers. 


Spare-ribs. 
Ribs freed from 
fat. 


Ham. 
Hind leg, and 
parts corre- 
sponding to 
rump and 
round in beef. 


Back. 
Close to back- 
bone. 


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188 THEOKY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 




Diagram showing Cuts of Beef. 



1 and 2 =loin (1 = sirloin). 
8= rump. 

4 = round. 

5 = top sirloin. 



6 = prime ribs. 

7 = blade. 

8 = chuck. 

9 = neck. 



10 = brisket. 

11 = cross-rib. 

12 = plate. 

13 = navel. 



14 = flank. 

15 = shoulder. 

16 = leg (shin). 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 



189 




Diagram showing Cuts of Veal. 



1 =loin. 

2 = leg (cutlets, etc.). 

3 = knuckle. 

4 = rack. 



5 = shoulder. 

6 = neck. 

7, 7 = breast. 



190 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 




Diagram showing Cuts of Lamb and Mutton. 



1 = l()in. 

2 = leg. 



3 = rib-portion. 

4 = shoulder. 



5,5 = 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 191 



Diagram showing Cuts of Pork, 

l=loin. 3 = back. 5 = belly. 

2 = ham. 4 = shoulder. 



192 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Section 3. Poultry and Game 

317. Of the birds we use for food, fowls and chick- 
ens, turkej^s, and tame ducks and geese are classed 
together as poultry ; quail, partridges, grouse, wild 
ducks and geese, and other wild fowl being called 
game. 

318. Food value and digestibility of poultry and game. 

— The flesh of ducks and geese, like pork, is so fat that 
it is not easily digested. Of what use is fat in the 
bodies of waterfowl ? Game is too expensive to be 
eaten as commonly as meat, fish, or poultry. Being, 
except in the case of wild ducks and geese, more read- 
ily digestible than other flesh foods, it is especially 
suitable for the sick. 

The light meat from the breasts of poultry is tender, 
but poorer in flavor, than the less delicate meat from 
the leg and hip-joint, or " second joint," a difference 
corresponding to that between the loin of beef and the 
shin and round. The delicacy of the breast-meat is 
owing partly to the shortness of its muscle-fibres, and 
the comparative toughness of the " drumsticks " to 
strong tendons running through them. Why is the 
meat on the wings of domestic fowls so much more 
tender than that on the legs ? Wild fowl have dark, 
rich meat on breast and wings. Can you explain why ? 

319. Selecting poultry. — In market terms, chicken 
not more than five months old is " spring chicken " ; 
chicken over a year old, fowl. Full-grown poultry is 
finer in flavor than young chickens. 

Would you choose fowl or spring chicken for broil- 
ing ? For f ricasseeing ? What effect would stewing 
have on the flesh of a young bird ? On the tendons 
of an old one ? These tendons should be removed if 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 193 

the fowl is to be roasted, but not if it is to be boiled 
or fricasseed. What is the reason ? 

In a chicken or young fowl the scales on the legs are 
yellow and soft, and the breast-bone yielding. How 
do the bones of young animals differ in composition 
from those of older ones ? Older fowls have horny 
scales, a hard breast-bone, thicker and yellower skin, 
and more fat. Pin-feathers, usually an indication of 
youth, give place to hairs as the bird grows older. A 
young cock is best for roasting. 

A young turkey is known by the same points as a young 
fowl. Good turkeys have, besides, plump breasts, black 
legs, and white flesh. A young cock turkey (gobbler) 
has small spurs. As a rule, hen turkeys are best ; old 
gobblers are never good. 

In a young duck or goose the windpipe is brittle enough 
to snap readily between the thumb and finger, and the 
feet are soft and yellow. Neither ducks nor geese are 
good if more than one year old. 

320. How to prepare a fowl for fricassee. — 1. Cutting 
off the Meat. — Do not draw the fowl, but with a small, 
sharp-pointed knife cut the meat from the skeleton, 
(a) Cut the skin between the legs and body ; bend the 
legs back far enough to snap the hip-joints ; then cut 
through the flesh to these joints, taking off the " second 
joint " and " drumstick " from each side in one piece. 
(Separate these after washing them.) (5) Break the 
wing-joints, and cut off the wings, (c) Starting with 
the knife at a right angle to the upper part of the breast- 
bone, cut back as far as the Aving-joint, keeping the knife 
close to the bone. This cuts out tlie wish-bone with a 
large piece of flesh, ((i) Remove the meat on each 
side of the breast-bone, (e) Cut the neck off short. 
(/) Find on either side of the tail a pointed bone, the 
"side-bone." Make cuts between these bones and the 



194 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

tail, separating them from the back-bone, and with them 
two strips of flesh, — the most delicious meat on the 
fowl. (^) Cut off the tail-piece. 

2. Removing Organs. — Holding the breast-bone firmly 
with one hand and the back-bone with the other, tear 
them apart, and take out the entrails. Remove the 
oil-bag. 

3. Washing. — Wash the pieces of chicken and the 
stripped skeleton quickly in cold water. 

Recipe for Chicken Fricassee 
One fowl. 

Boiling water or white stock, 1 quart. 
One small onion. 

Salt, 2 teaspoonfuls. 

Parsley cut fine, 2 teaspoonfuls. 

A few sprigs of parsley for garnishing. 

Cut the chicken into thirteen pieces as directed above. 

Brown the onion in a little tried-out chicken fat or 
drippings, and put it with the chicken meat and bones. 
Add stock or water, and let it simmer about an hour, or 
till nearly evaporated. Take out the bone, pour off the 
liquid, and let the meat and sediment brown delicately, 
stirring and turning the pieces. Then pour back the 
liquid, with enough water or stock in addition to make 
two or three cupfuls in all. Add the salt. After sim- 
mering for another hour the chicken should be tender. 
Arrange the pieces on a hot platter, neck and tail in the 
centre, breast-pieces and wish-bone on top of these, sec- 
ond joints at one end of the dish, legs crossed at the 
other, and wings and side-pieces on either side. Thicken 
the gravy with flour wet with cold water, and pour over 
the chicken ; sprinkle and garnish with parsley. The 
fricassee may be served in a border of rice. 

321. Chicken Stew, sometimes called "White Fricassee 
of Chicken," is prepared like chicken fricassee, except 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 195 

that the chicken is not browned. After removing the 
chicken, reduce the liquid to one and one-half cupfuls^ 
add 07ie cupful of milk, and thicken tvith four table- 
spoonfuls of flour. Stewed chicken, lacking the flavor 
of browned meat, is better served on slices of toast than 
with the comparatively tasteless rice. 



Section 4. A Lesson in Digestion, illustrated by 
the Digestive Organs of a Fowl 

We live not upon what we eat, but upon what we digest. — Meinert. 

322. The alimentary canal of a fowl. — When we 
chop off the head of a fowl we find we have cut 
through two tubes, one collapsed, the other kept circu- 
lar by rings of cartilage. The first is the windpipe, 
the second the " food-pipe," called the esophagus. 
The latter is part of a long passageway through the 
body, called the alimentary canal (from aliment, meaning 
food). To trace the path of this canal, lay the organs 
drawn from a fowl, as nearly as you can, in the position 
they occupied in its body, the lungs folded around the 
heart ; the gizzard in the arched space under the lungs, 
with the crop close beside the tube leading into the 
latter ; the liver, with gall-bladder attached, at the left 
of the gizzard,^ and folded partly around it ; the pan- 
creas, a slender, yellow body, in the first loop of the 
intestine, behind and a little below the gizzard. In 
the fowl the intestines lie in closely packed coils, mak- 
ing a continuous winding passage from gizzard to vent. 
See from what a marvellous membrane they are sus- 
pended, filmy as gauze, yet strong enough to support 
them. This is the peritoneum. In life another mem- 
brane, the diaphragm, is stretched between the lungs 

1 I.e. on the right-hand side of the fowl's body, as it is in life. 



196 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

and the organs beneath them, but, when torn, as it is 
in drawing the fowl, it contracts to a mere strip, almost 
impossible to find. 

323. Comparison of the alimentary canal of a fowl 
with that of a human being ; why fowls have crops. — 
If we compare the alimentary canal of a fowl with a 
diagram of that of a man, we shall find in the latter 
nothing corresponding to a crop. Why the fowl needs 
this organ is plain if we examine its month and the sac 
taken from its gizzard. There are no teeth in the 
former, but in the latter will be found a number of 
pebbles. These take the place of teeth; but as food 
swallowed whole goes down much faster than the giz- 
zard can grind it up, the crop receives it, and lets only 
so much pass at a time as the gizzard has room for. In 
other respects, however, our own digestive organs are 
similar to the fowl's. Let us trace the course of a 
mouthful of food undergoing digestion, recalling what 
we have already learned about the chemical changes 
taking place in the process (§§ 129, 161, 178, 237, 238, 
and 292), and using the organs of the fowl to make each 
step clear. 

324. Food in the mouth and esophagus. — In the 
mouth food is masticated (chewed), and mixed with 
saliva supplied by three pairs of glands. After being 
swallowed it is squeezed downward by the contractions 
of rings of muscle around the esophagus, till it drops 
into the pouchlike expansion of the alimentary canal 
called the stomach. 

325. Food in the stomach. — The wall of the stomach 
is of muscular tissue, enclosed in a thin membrane, 
and lined with another membrane, velvety and moist, 
that lies, when the stomach is contracted, in soft 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 197 

folds. When it is distended with food, this lining is 
stretched smooth. In it are the glands for secreting 
gastric juice, which converts proteids into the more 
soluble peptones. By the motion of the muscular wall, 
food in the stomach is churned up at the same time 
that the gastric juice mixes with it. As fast as it is 
reduced to the grayish pulp called chyme, the passage at 
the right-hand end of the stomach, called the pylorus 
(meaning gate)^ opens to let it out into the intestine, 
where two little ducts enter, one pouring in bile secreted 
by the liver and stored in the gall-bladder till needed, 
the other, pancreatic juice from the pancreas. This juice 
contains three ferments (p. 128): amylopsin^ which 
acts like ptyalin, changing starch to sugar ; trypsm^ 
which carries on the work of digesting proteids, begun 
by pepsin ; and steapsin^ which splits fats into simpler 
compounds. 1 Bile seems to have no particular effect 
upon any foodstuff, but other digestive fluids are ob- 
served to work better when bile is present. The small 
intestine itself yields a digestive fluid, of which little is 
known except that it changes maltose and cane-sugar 
to grape-sugar (glucose), in which form they are ab- 
sorbed. The whole mass of food, when ready for 
absorption, is a creamy fluid termed chyle. 

326. Absorption of food from the alimentary canal. — 

The process of absorption is wonderfully interesting, 
but as the cooking of food has no direct connection 
with its absorption, that topic lies outside the scope of 
this text-book. Cooking prepares food for digestion; 
digestion prepares it for absorption. Some food is 
absorbed into the blood through the walls of the 
stomach, but more from the small intestine. It is sup- 
posed that the molecules of which foodstuffs are com- 

1 For more about the digestion of fat, see p. 215. 



198 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

posed, particles far too small to be discerned by the 
microscope, are, by the digestive ferments, actually 
split into smaller molecules, so that they may pass 
through the lining membrane of the alimentary canal. 
It is to give ample surface for absorption that the small 
intestine is so long — twenty-six feet — and that its inner 
surface is thrown into folds and covered with tiny 
threadlike projections called villi (singular villus) that 
suck from the river of chyle all that is nutritious, and 
send it on into the blood stream, leaving waste matter 
to pass into the large intestine, and be expelled from 
the body. 

We may think of the alimentary canal as a water- 
course, at first straight, then widening into a lake or 
basin, then narrowing to a winding stream and receiv- 
ing tributaries, and, at last, having its current diverted 
into innumerable channels to irrigate the land through 
which it flows. 



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200 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Section 5. Fish and Shell-fish 

Fruit of the wave ! dainty and delicious ! — W. A. Croffut. 

327. In fish we have a food similar in general char- 
acter to meat, yet different from it in some ways. 
These points of unlikeness in the fiesh of the two 
classes of animals correspond to differences in the 
natures of the animals themselves. 

328. Fish proper are distinguished from shell-fish by 
being vertebrate. 

A Study of the Structure of a Fish 

A. How does a fish breathe ? Find the gills, — red fringes back 
of the head. As the water taken into the fish's mouth passes out 
through the gills, the air dissolved in it gives oxygen to the blood. 
B. What covering has the fish ? Are the scales attached at their 
rear or their front ends? Is there a reason for this? Over the 
scales lies a thin skin, often containing coloring matter. Mackerel, 
butterfish, and a few others have no scales. C. An air bladder 
under the spine keeps the fish afloat. 



329. How to know a fresh fish. — Fish may be tested 
for proteid, as meat is. In a fresh fish the gills are a 
bright red, the flesh along the back-bone firm and elastic, 
the eyes bulging and bright. 

330. How to clean fish. — Wash the fish inside and 
out with a cloth wet in cold salt water, and dry with a 
clean towel kept for this purpose. If the fish is to be 
broiled or fried, cut off head and tail and split it down 
the back; if to be boiled, cut off the head only; if to 
be baked, leave whole. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 201 

331. Fish suitable for baking whole. — Cod, haddock, 
cusk, bluefisli, small salmon, bass, shad, whitefish. 

Recipe for Stuffing for Baked Fish 

Stale bread crumbs, 1 cupful. Pepper, a few grains. 

Melted butter, 1 tablespoon ful. Onion juice, a few drops. 
Salt, Yz teaspoonful. Parsley cut fine, 1 tablespoonful. 

Mix the ingredients in the order given. This recipe 
makes stuffing for a four-pound fish. 

Directions for baking a Fish Whole 

Time. — Forty-five to sixty minutes. 

Fill the cavity with stuffing, allowing it room to swell 
slightly. Sew the slit over and over with strong thread, 
taking stitches deep enough not to tear out. If the fish 
is a dry one (§ 345), cut gashes crosswise, and put in 
them strips of fat salt pork about one inch long, or 
insert the strips with a larding-needle. 

Skewer and tie the fish into the shape of the letter S, 
and set it upright, surrounded by bits of salt fat pork, 
on a greased fish sheet on a baking-pan. Bake until 
brown, basting often. Serve with Drawn Butter or 
HoUandaise Sauce. 

If you have no fish sheet, lay two strips of cloth 
across the pan, and lift the fish, when done, by these. 

332. Fish suitable for broiling. Sflit. — Mackerel, 
young cod, bluefish, whitefish, shad, trout, etc. Sliced. 
— Chicken halibut and salmon. Whole. — Smelts, perch, 
and other small fish. 



202 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Directions for broiling Fish 

Time. — For small fish, five to ten minutes ; for large 
fish, fifteen to twenty minutes. Use a close-barred 
double wire broiler. Grease it when hot with salt- 
j)ork rind. See that the fish is wiped dry ; sprinkle 
it with salt and pepper, and, if not oily, rub it with 
melted butter. 

Broil split fish flesh side to the heat until browned ; 
then broil the other side till the skin is crisp. Broil 
small fish close to the heat, turning occasionally. Turn 
slices of fish often. 

When cooked, carefully loosen both sides of the fish 
from the broiler, and slip off on to a hot platter. Spread 
with butter, salt, and pepper, with Maitre d'Hotel But- 
ter (for recipe, see p. 151), or witli Tartar Sauce, and 
garnish with parsley and slices of lemon. 

333. Fish suitable for boiling. — Thick piece of salmon 
or halibut, shoulder of cod, whole small cod, haddock, 
bluefish, etc. 

Directions for boiling Fish 

Time. — Varies with fish. Thirty to forty-five minutes. 

To the water in which the fish is to be boiled add the 
juice of half a lemon, or one-fourth of a cupful of vine- 
gar. Place the fish on a fish-rack or a plate, or coil it in 
a wire basket. If on a plate, tie fish and plate in a piece 
of clean cheese-cloth. Any fish not boiled whole keeps 
whiter if wrapped in cloth. When the water boils, 
lower the fish into it, and let it simmer until the flesh 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 203 

se23arates from the bones. When nearly done, put in 
one tablespoonful of salt. Garnish with parsley and 
slices of lemon, and serve on a platter, with Drawn But- 
ter, Egg Sauce, or Hollandaise Sauce either poured over 
it or in a sauce-boat. 

Recipes for Fish Sauces 

Drawn Butter 

Butter, yi cupful. Water, \yi cupfuls. 

Flour, 3 tablespoonfuls. Salt, ^ teaspoonful. 

Pepper, a few grains. 

Mix flour, salt, and pepper with one-half the butter, 
pour on the water, and stir over the fire until the sauce 
boils. Add the rest of the butter in bits, stirring until 
it is absorbed. 

For Egg Sauce, add to Drawn Butter two hard- 
cooked eggs chopped. 

Tartar Sauce 

Lemon juice, 1 teaspoonful. Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoonful. 
Salt, X teaspoonful. Vinegar, 1 tablespoonful. 

Heat together in a bowl over hot water the vinegar, 
lemon juice, salt, and Worcestershire. Brown the but- 
ter in a frying-pan, and strain it into the mixture. 

334. Ways of reheating fish. — 1. Creamed fish. Re- 
move the skin and bone ; pick the fish into flakes with 
a fork, and heat it in Drawn Butter or White Sauce. 
2. Scalloped fish. Mix flaked fish with White Sauce 
and minced parsley, and bake it, covered with buttered 



204 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

crumbs, in a baking-dish, or in clam shells. 3. Fish 
hash. Mix flaked fish with mashed or finely chopped 
potato, and heat it as you would meat hash. The stuff- 
ing may be used with the fish in any of these dishes. 

Why fish needs special care in cooking. — The muscles 
of fish have large fibres and little connective tissue. 
It is this that makes fish break so easily. 

Except for fish so rich and oily that some loss of flavor 
and nutriment can be afforded, boiling is a wasteful way 
of cooking cut fish. Vinegar or lemon juice in the water 
hardens the fish, thus helping to keep it whole, and 
saves some of the albumin, by helping to coagulate it ; 
but any fish is better steamed than boiled. 

What other precautions do we take to keep fish from 
cooking to pieces, or from falling apart after being 
cooked ? What effect has cooking on connective tissue ? 
(See Directions for Broiling, Baking, and Boiling Fish.) 

335. Food value and digestibility of fish : why good for 
brain-workers. — In food value and digestibility, fish is 
much like lean meat. As it is less stimulating, it is es- 
pecially suited to the needs of brain-workers, who take 
little exercise. 1 It is more desirable as a means of vary- 
ing the diet than as a staple food; still, it is the proteid 
food in many coast towns where sea-food is cheap and 
meat hard to obtain. 

Fish is hurt more than meat by keeping, so that it 

1 There is no truth in the popular notion that fish supplies the brain 
with phosphorus. As a matter of fact, many kinds of meat contain 
more phosphorus than fish does. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 205 

is nowhere so delicious as near where it is caught. 
Fish kept too long is watery when cooked. 

Fish containing little fat, and that mostly in the liver, 
are termed "dry"; their flesh is usually white. In 
most dark-fleshed fish, fat is more abundant, and found 
throughout the body. 

Among fish containing from 6 to 12 per cent of fat, 
are salmon, shad, Spanish mackerel, and butterfish; 
whitefish, common mackerel, and halibut have, as a rule, 
between 2 and 6 per cent; weakfish, black bass, blue- 
fish,^ cod, and haddock less than 2 per cent. 

1 Bluefish is an exception to the general rule that dark-fleshed fish 
are oily. 



206 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 













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208 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 
A Study of the Structure of an Oyster 

336. Examine an oyster from which the flat shell has been 
removed. Has it any bones? How is its body protected? Ob- 
serve the thin membrane (jnantle) covering the oyster ; its fringed 
edges form the gills. Find on either shell a blue spot showing 
where the muscle is attached that opens and closes the shell ; also 
the dark spot on the oyster where the liver is. 

337. How the oyster lives. — Oysters, clams, mussels, 
and scallops are salt-water shell-fish belonging to the 
family of mollusks^ or soft-bodied animals. Their shells, 
built up of mineral matter secreted by the mantle, form 
a sort of outside skeleton. The young oyster floats 
about, but as its shell grows thicker and heavier, it set- 
tles down on the sand or rocks, the half shell, or valve^ 
on which it lies becoming rounder and deeper than the 
one that covers it. The oyster has neither head nor 
limbs, but has a mouth near the hinge-end of its shell, 
and two strong muscles, one to open the shell to take in 
food and water, the other to close it, if a starfish or other 
enemy comes by. Oysters grow crowded together, 
forming oyster-heds. 

Oysters spawn in summer, one individual laying 
millions of eggs in a season. During this period they 
are not good food. Like fish, oysters are cultivated, 
baby-oysters, called "seed-oysters," being planted all 
along the Atlantic coast. 

338. Experiment. — Boil a little oyster liquor. What forms 
on top? What foodstuff do oysters evidently contain? At what 
temperature, and for about what length of time, would you cook 
them? 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 209 

339. Preparation of oysters. — Oysters are commonly 
opened by the fish-dealer. To clean oysters, drain off 
the liquor, straining it through a wire strainer if it is 
to be used. Rinse the oysters on a colander, using only 
half a cupful of cold water to one quart of oysters^ to 
avoid washing away the flavor. With the fingers ex- 
amine the gills to see that no bits of shell are left cling- 
ing to them. 

How to serve raw oysters. — Raw oysters are served 
with lemon juice and red or black pepper as a first 
course at dinner or luncheon, or for an invalid. Ar- 
range six oysters " on the half shell," on crushed ice on 
each plate, small ends toward the centre. Place a 
quarter of a lemon in the middle of the circle. 

340. Oysters as food : easily digestible, but not cheap. — 

Oysters have about the same composition as milk, con- 
taining carbohydrate matter^ which most flesh foods 
lack. Since they commonly cost at least five times as 
much as milk, they are clearly not an economical food; 
but for their flavor and ease of digestibility they are 
highly prized. Large oysters are, generally speaking, 
more nutritious than small ones. Oysters are commonly 
made plump and white by being put into fresh or brack- 
ish (half-salt) water for about two days before they are 
taken to market. During this "fattening" process they 
gain weight by taking in water, but lose some of the 
mineral matter that gives them their salty flavor, and 
probably a small quantity of other foodstuffs. 

1 Glycogen (animal starch) in the liver. 



210 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Recipes 
Oyster Stew 

Stewing oysters, 1 pint. Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Hot milk, 1 cupful. Salt. 

Pepper, a few grains. 

Drain and rinse the oysters, strain the liquor, and 
heat the oysters in it till their edges curl,i remove the 
scum, and turn oysters and liquid into the hot milk. 
Add butter and seasoning. Serve with oyster crackers. 

Scalloped Oysters 

Oysters, 1 quart, solid. 

Melted butter, >^ cupful. 

Stale bread crumbs, 2 cupfuls. 

Salt, about 1 teaspoonful. 

Pepper, i^^ teaspoonful or more. 

Oyster liquor, or oyster 

liquor and milk, 5 or 6 tablespoonfuls. 

Mix the crumbs with the salt, pepper, and butter ; 
spread one-third of them on the bottom of a buttered 
baking-dish ; put in half of the oysters, drained and 
rinsed, another layer of crumbs and the rest of the oys- 
ters, covering the top with the remaining crumbs. Pour 
over these the liquid. Bake about twenty minutes in 
an oven hot enough to brown the crumbs in that time. 

A grating of nutmeg or a slight sprinkli7ig of mace may 
follow each layer, if you choose. 

341. Lobsters, crabs, and shrimps are crustaceans^ that 
is, animals consisting of jointed sections, each of which 

1 If cooked longer, they will be leathery. 



THE FLESH OF ANIMALS 211 

is covered with a hard shelL Their flesh is similar in 
composition to that of other fish, but tough and hard to 
digest. It is liked because of its unique and delicate 
flavor. 

A series of good articles about fish begins on p. 120 of Foods 
and Beverages. After examining an oyster, read about the fresh- 
water mussel in Cha^Dter VI of Boys and Girls in Biology. 



CHAPTER yil 

FUEL FOODS: FAT FROM ANIMALS AND OIL 
FROM PLANTS 

A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too 
busy to take care of his tools. 

Section 1. Fats and Oils : "What they are and "What 
they are Good For 

342. What foods have we found to contain fat? 
What uses have we made of fat in cooking ? What are 
the uses of fat in the body ? 

Distinction between fats and oils. — We know that fats 
and oils are alike greasy, and that fat, by heating it, may 
be changed to oil. Some fats are soft and oily, others 
firm and hard. An oil is a fat that is liquid at ordinary 
temperatures. 

343. Most fats contain stearin and palmitin, solid fatty 
substances, and olein, a liquid. Fat having a large propor- 
tion of stearin is hard ; the less stearin it has the softer it 
is. Oils consist chiefly of olein, in which some palmitin and 
stearin are dissolved. 

The softer a fat is the less heat it takes to melt it. 
The fat of some plants is in the form of oil. 

SouKCES OF Fats and Oils commonly used 
IN Cooking 

344. Olive oil. — This oil is obtained from the fruit of 
the olive tree. Olives, as we know from seeing unripe 

212 



FAT FROM ANIMALS AND OIL FROM PLANTS 213 

ones pickled, are about the size of plums. Some varieties, 
when ripe, are purple, some green, others yellow. The 
best oil is obtained from the first pressing of fresh, care- 
fully picked fruit ; a poorer grade, from a second press- 
ing ; and after treating the mass of pulp with hot water, 
a third grade, used for soap-making. 

Cottonseed oil. — The best grade of cottonseed oil is 
excellent for table use. Much is exported to Spain, 
France, and Italy to be bottled, and resold in this 
country as "pure olive oil," at many times its original 
value. 

Cottonseed oil mixed with suet is sold as " cottolene," 
" cotosuet," etc. 

345. Butterine or oleomargarine is made from the olein 
(oily part) of purified beef and pork fat churned with 
milk, mixed with butter, and salted and colored as 
butter is. Good butterine contains about 25 per cent of 
butter, 30 per cent of " neutral," or lard oil, 25 per cent 
of olein from beef, and 20 per cent of salt and cream. 
It is clean, pure, wholesome, and nutritious, and so like 
good butter that no one eating it can tell the difference. 
Being cheap to make, it should be sold cheap ; but un- 
reasonable laws, designed to prevent its being sold as 
butter, keep it almost altogether out of the market, 
while bad butter is openly sold for far more than it is 
worth. 

For an account of butter and butter-making, see pp. 
97-99 ; for lard and other animal fats see section 2 
of Chapter VI. 



214 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

346. ^QQ^B, particularly nuts and grains, are rich in oil^ 
some containing 50 per cent or more, stored up, as 
starch is, to feed the seedling. 

Fat as Food 

347. Fat as food; no diet well-balanced without it. — 

Knowing fat to be a heat giver, we can understand why 
we like, in winter, foods containing more fat than we 
care for in summer, and why arctic explorers come to 
like whale-blubber and walrus fat. But when we learn 
that the natives of even tropic India pour melted butter 
(ghee^ over their rice, we perceive that in any climate, 
and under all conditions, men need to eat some fat. In 
a body poorly supplied with this, its proper fuel, pro- 
teid has to take its place. But proteid is costly, is 
needed for tissue-building, and, besides, is worth less 
than half what fat is as a heat giver. So that in burn- 
ing proteid to keep up our bodily heat, we are like 
people who, storm-bound on the prairies and out of fire- 
wood, feed their stoves with furniture and even with 
grain ; that is, we use for fuel, material intended and 
needed for other purposes, and which we can ill afford 
to burn. Girls often dislike fat, particularly the thin, 
delicate ones who most need it. If possible it should 
be offered to them in tempting and digestible forms, 
cream salads dressed with oil, and crisp, fat bacon. But 
all kinds of fat can be so prepared as to be unobjection- 
able. Some ways of using it, however, are harmful to 
health. To see why this is we must understand some- 
thing about the digestion of fats. 



FAT FROM ANIMALS AND OIL FROM PLANTS 215 

348. How fat is digested. — Fats undergo much less 
change in the alimentary canal than either proteids or 
carbohydrates. They pass out of the stomach, indeed, 
in practically the same state that they entered the mouth. 
Even in the small intestine they are not dissolved, but 
are in part emulsified and in part saponified (turned to 
soap) by the pancreatic juice, bile, and intestinal juice. 
In this process the fat is divided into smaller and smaller 
droplets, till these become tiny enough to be sucked up 
by cells lining the intestine. From these cells the fat 
is passed on to the lacteals, fine tubes joining eventually 
in one large one, the thoraeie duct, which empties into 
the blood streams. In these it is always found in the 
form of an emulsion, the milkiness caused by the sus- 
pended globules giving these little tubes their name 
(§ 174). 

Why fried food and pastry are hard to digest. — It is easy 
to see that fat finely divided or mixed with other food 
can be made ready for absorption more quickly than if 
swallowed in a mass. Perhaps it is for this reason that 
we instinctively spread butter on bread instead of eat- 
ing it by itself, and in general prefer to take fat in com- 
bination with other food. But what happens if we 
incorporate it so closely with other food that particles 
of this are actually coated with grease, as when butter 
is allowed to melt and soak into toast ? 

In this case the butter, since it is affected by neither 
saliva nor gastric juice, acts as a seal, preventing these 
juices from reaching the starch and other foodstuffs 
in the bread, which, therefore, remain undigested till the 



216 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

fat is removed from them in the intestine. The juices 
here do their best to digest the bread, but, as they were 
never meant to do all the work of digestion, and as the 
bread is constantly being pushed along past the little 
cells eager for it, but unable to take it in unprepared, 
some of it is almost sure to be left unabsorbed. With 
pastry the case is still worse ; for in this, not only is 
butter rubbed into the flour so as to envelop the starch 
granules, but so little water is added that the latter 
cannot swell as they should (§ 117). Food that has 
soaked up fat in frying is in much the same state. 

Section 2. Cooking in Pat: Prying and Sauteing 

349. The difficulty of cooking food in fat without 
having it greasy makes this the least desirable method 
of cooking. Nevertheless, certain kinds of food are 
good fried, and, if properly fried, need not be unwhole- 
some. 

350. Experiments with heated fat. — A. Take the temperature 
of butter or drippings while it is foaming and bubbling over the 
fire. Heat it until it no longer bubbles, and take its temperature 
again. Is it hotter or cooler than before ? Does v/ater stop boil- 
ing unless it is allowed to cool? Does it grow hotter after it 
reaches the boiling-point? Do you think the fat was boiling when 
it bubbled? 

351. Why we should not speak of "boiling " fat. — Fats, 
generally speaking, burn before they boil. It is water 
contained in the fat that makes it bubble when heated. 
Until this water has boiled away, the fat cannot be 



FAT FROM ANIMALS AND OIL FROM PLANTS 217 

raised to a temperature much above 212°, but after 
it lias all passed off, as is shown by the fat becoming 
still, the latter grows rapidly hotter, rising to 300° or 
400°, some kinds of fat even higher. 

352. Experiment. — B. Drop a bit of bread into bubbling-hot 
lard : after a minute take it out. Continue to heat the lard until 
it smokes and is perfectly still. Drop in another bit of bread, let 
it stay a minute, then take it out. Break open both pieces. Which 
piece has soaked up the most grease? Which has browned? How 
does a coating of grease affect the digestion of food? How does 
browning (carmelization) affect the digestion of starch? Should 
food be fried in bubbling or in still fat? AVhat makes the fat 
bubble when the bread is dropped into it ? How does moisture 
affect the temperature of hot fat? 

Experiment. — C. Heat butter, lard, and drippings in separate 
saucepans. Which burns first? Which can be made hottest 
without burning? Which is best for frying? Which least 
desirable ? 

353. Points about frying : have the fat deep, do not use 
butter. — These experiments show (1) that unless fat 
used for frying is hot enough to form a crust on the 
food cooked in it, it will soak into the food ; (2) that 
so long as it bubbles it is not hot enough to form a 
crust ; (3) that anything that cools the fat tends to 
make the food greasy ; (4) that the best fat to fry in 
is the one that can be made hottest without burning. 

Therefore, have the fat deep enough to cover the food^ 
so that it may be crusted over at once ; see that it is 
smoking hot aiid still before putting the food in ; reheat 
the fat after each frying ; and do not fry in butter. 

Of common fats, butter is the worst for frying, suet 



218 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

(hard fat) from beef, veal, and mutton next better, 
drippings better still, and lard best of all. Olive oil, 
which may be heated to above 600°, is superior to any 
of these. In Southern Europe it is commonly employed 
for frying, but in this country is too expensive for such 
use. 

What reason is there against the use of butter for 
frying, besides its low burning-point ? 

How TO PREPARE FaT FOR USE 

354. Fats are " tried out," or rendered^ to free them 
from connective tissue, then clarified to remove water 
and impurities. Lard is sold ready for use ; other fat 
is usually tried out at home. Suet may be bought for 
this purpose, and all scraps of fat, cooked or uncooked, 
and drippings from beef, veal, fresh pork, and chicken ^ 
should be carefully saved. Soup fat and drippings 
need only to be clarified ; suet and scraps must first be 
tried out. 

To try out fat. — Cut the fat into bits, put it into a 
pan in the oven with enough cold water to cover it, and 
simmer it for several hours. When the fat is melted, 
and nearly free from water, strain it, pressing to obtain 
all the fat. 

To clarify fat. — Melt drippings or tried-out fat, add 
to it a few slices of raw potato, and heat slowly in the 

1 The flavor of fat from mutton, lamb, duck, goose, and turkey- 
prevents their being used in cooking. They may be saved for soap- 
grease. The fat from smoked meats may be used for frying, if you do 
not object to its taste. 



FAT FROM ANIMALS AND OIL FROM PLANTS 219 

oven until it ceases to bubble. The potato absorbs 
some of the impurities ; most of the rest settle to the 
bottom. Strain the fat through cheese-cloth, and let it 
stand undisturbed till solid. If stirred, it absorbs 
moisture from the air. Since it keeps longer if left 
unbroken, it is well to strain it into cups or marmalade 
jars, so that a portion may be used without disturbing 
the rest. 

355. Foods requiring much cooking not suitable for fry- 
ing. — Foods suitable for frying are those made of 
cooked material or those that require little cooking ; 
for example, croquettes and oysters. Most raw food, in 
order that the outside may not become too brown before 
the inside is cooked, must be put into fat not quite as 
hot as it should be to prevent absorption of grease. 
Exceptions. — Fish and oysters, being very watery, cool 
the fat rapidly, — making it therefore as hot for these 
as for cooked articles. 

Articles of food to be fried are usually covered with 
egg and crumbs, flour, or meal, to protect them from 
absorbing fat. Why is egg used for this purpose? 

356. Testing the temperature of fat for frying. — When 
the fat begins to smoke, drop into it an inch cube from 
the crumb of white bread. If this becomes golden 
brown in forty seconds, the fat is right for croquettes 
and other articles made of cooked material, and for fish 
and oysters. If it takes sixty seconds, it is right for 
fritters, and most other uncooked articles. 



220 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

357. Directions for frying. — Use a deep frying-pan or 
kettle. A wire frying-basket to hold the articles to be 
fried, hung on a long-handled fork, is convenient ; but 
they may be lowered into the fat and taken from it with 
a spoon-shaped wire egg-beater. Put the fat into a cold 
kettle, and bring it slowly to the right degree of heat. 
Have ready several sheets of soft paper laid on a pan, 
also a pan to hold under the food as it is taken from the 
fat. Test the fat ; if right, dip the basket or wire spoon 
into the fat to heat and grease it. If a basket is used, 
lay three or four articles in it, and lower them till 
the fat covers them. When they are a delicate golden 
brown, lift the basket, shake it a little, and let the food 
drain for a moment before removing it to the paper. 
Reheat the fat, testing again if necessary, and fry 
another batch of articles. Three croquettes can be fried 
at once in a three-quart saucepan ; more will cool the 
fat below the "soaking-point." When all grease has 
been absorbed by the paper, arrange the food on a plat- 
ter, and garnish it Avith parsley ; in the case of fish or 
oysters, with parsley and slices of lemon. 

Croquettes 

358. Materials used. — The usual croquette mixture 
consists of two parts of chopped cooked meat, or cooked, 
flaked, well-seasoned fish, to one part of thick white 
sauce. Cheese, macaroni, and some kinds of vegetables 
may also be used in croquettes. 

Shaping and crumbing. — Put on aboard a heap of fine, 
dried bread crumbs. Break an egg into a plate, add it 



FAT FROM ANIMALS AND OIL FROM PLANTS 221 

to a tablespoonful of water, and beat it enough to mix 
the white and yolk. With two spoons, or with spoon 
and spatula or broad-bladed knife, shape heaping table- 
spoonfuls of the croquette mixture into balls, roll them 
in crumbs, shape them into cylinders, and with the knife 
lift them one by one into the egg, dipping it over them 
till every bit of the surface is covered ; roll them in 
crumbs again till all the egg is covered, and lay them 
carefully on the board. 

Recipes 

Chicken Croquettes 

Cooked chicken, chopped fine, 2 cupfuls. 

Thick white sauce, 1 cupful. 

Onion juice, 1 teaspoonful. 

Grated nutmeg, a few grains (about three strokes on the grater). 

Additional salt and pepper according to taste. 

Make white sauce for croquettes from 

Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. Milk or thick cream, 1 cupful. 
Flour, X cupful. Salt, 1 teaspoonful. 

White pepper, }i teaspoonful. 

Add seasonings to the chicken, mix with the hot 
white sauce, and turn on to a platter to cool. When 
cold, form into cylinders or cones, roll in egg and bread 
crumbs, and fry in deep fat. Stick a small sprig of 
parsley into each croquette ; serve on a folded napkin, 
or pour around them a white sauce. 

Croquettes may be made of any cooked meat. Veal 
may be mixed with chicken. With beef or lamb cro- 



222 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

quettes omit nutmeg, and serve with Tomato Sauce 
instead of White Sauce. 

Savory Rice Croquettes 

Boiled rice, 2 cupfuls. Salt, ^ teaspooiiful. 

Eggs, 1, beaten. Pepper, y^ teaspoonful. 

Butter 2 tablespoonfuls. Cayenne, or paprika, a few grains. 

Minced parsley, 2 or 3 tablespoonfuls. 

If the rice is cold, warm it with two or three table- 
spoonfuls of milk. Mix the ingredients, and shape and 
fry like chicken croquettes. 

Potato Croquettes 

Mashed or riced potato, 2 cupfuls. 
Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Salt, >^ to ^ teaspoonful. 

Pepper, % teaspoonful. 

Celery salt, X teaspoonful. 

Onion juice, 10 drops. 

Beat the yolk, mix it with the potato, and add the 
other ingredients. Heat the mixture in a saucepan, 
stirring ; when it cleaves from the side of the pan, turn 
it on to a flat dish ; when cold, shape it into cylinders 
about three inches long. Roll these in egg and crumbs 
and fry them. 

Codfish Cakes (Fishballs) 

Salt codfish, }4 pound. 

Potatoes, in inch-thick pieces, 2 heaping cupfuls. 
Eggs, 1. 

Butter, ^ tablespoonful. 



FAT FROM ANIMALS AND OIL FROM PLANTS 223 

Boil and mash the potatoes. While they are cooking, 
cover the codfish with boiling water ; when this is cool 
enough to allow your hands in it, pick the fish into 
shreds. Drain off the water, mix fish, potatoes, butter, 
and eggs together, and beat the mixture well. Fry it 
by heaping tablespoonfuls in deep fat, or shape it into 
balls or cylinders and fry in deep fat. 

Directions for frying Oysters 

359. Prepare large oysters as directed in § 389 ; 
lay them on one end of a soft cloth, and with the other 
pat them dry. Take them one at a time by the gills, 
cover them first with seasoned cracker crumbs, then 
with egg, and last with crumbs grated from loaf. Fry 
in fat hot enough to brown white bread in forty 
seconds. 

360. Sauteing, often incorrectly called " frying," is 
cooking in a small quantity of fat. It is a slower 
method than " deep frying," less healthful, because 
the food cannot be kept from absorbing grease, and 
more wasteful, on account of the fat taken up in this 
way. But, as it is sometimes convenient to saute 
potatoes, liver, small dry fish, and a few other kinds 
of food, it is important to know how to do it in the 
best way. 

Directions for sauteing. — Have the pan hot enough to 
hiss when the fat is put into it, and the fat hot enough 
to hiss when the food is put in. Cook the food first on 
one side, then on the other. Use very little fat, add- 



224 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

ing from time to time just enough to keep the food 
from burning. 

The very worst way of cooking food is to put it into 
a cold or half-warm pan with grease enough to half 
cover it, and to let it sizzle and soak till it is wanted. 
Much of the sickness and death laid to other causes is 
really the result of eating food thus cooked. 

Suggestions about using Fat in Cooking 

361. 1. Beef fat, clarified by itself, is a good sub- 
stitute for butter in shortening bread, biscuits, and 
gingerbread. (See footnote to p. 107.) It can also be 
used to grease tins. 

2. Suet mixed with lard for frying improves its 
flavor, but not its frying qualities. It should not be 
used alone, as it hardens quickly, leaving a greasy 
coating on articles fried in it. 

3. Have articles to be fried as dry as possible, and 
not very cold. Why? 

4. Cautions. — Always loiver food gently into hot fat; 
if dropped in, the fat, splashing up, will burn your 
hand, and may fall on to the stove and catch fire. If 
this happens, or if the fat in the kettle takes fire, throw 
sand or ashes on it. With care about spattering the 
fat, or spilling water into it, which causes a sudden 
burst of steam, there need be no accidents. 

5. When the frying is done, set the fat in a cooler 
place at once. Do not strain it immediately, as it may 
be hot enough to melt the strainer. 

6. When fat has become dark from repeated using, 



FAT FROM ANIMALS AND OIL FROM PLANTS 225 

reclarify it with potato, or pour into it, when cold, 
three or four times its bulk of boiling water, stir well, 
and let it cool. Kemove the cake of fat, and scrape off 
the sediment that will be found on its under side. Fat 
too dark for croquettes may be used for fish. From 
overheating, or many times reheating, it becomes unfit 
for cooking purposes. When you find it does not 
brown the food well, use it for soap-grease, or throw it 
away. 

Suggestions for reading. — In Foods and Beverages read "Fat 
from Trees," p. 87; in Food Products of the World, Chapter XIV, 
"Butter"; Chapter XVII, "Vegetable Fats and Oils" (inclndes 
cocoanut oil and others not mentioned in this text-book), pp. 233- 
237 on nuts. 



CHAPTER VIII 

ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING POODS: FRUITS 
AND VEGETABLES 

Section 1. Fruits 

Purple grapes with autumn sunshine hot, 
The fragrant peach, the juicy bergamot. 

— Longfellow. 

A Study of an Apple 

362. Apples may be said to be to other fruits what 
potatoes are to other vegetables. But what do we 
know about apples? For instance, what makes them 
hard? Grate and squeeze one as you did the potato, 
and you will know. So much juice must mean that the 
apple is full of water. Test it for starch (§ 121 D). 
Taste it. It tastes both sour and sweet. What two 
substances must it contain ? In talking of the pulp of 
the apple, as the mass of juice-filled cells is called, we 
must not forget that this grows simply as a covering 
for the seeds. Some fruits have stones enclosing their 
seeds. How many stone fruits can you name? In 
some others the seeds are scattered through the pulp. 
This is true of some foods not commonly called fruits 
— for example, the tomato, the squash, the cocoa bean. 

226 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 227 

363. Definition of fruit; popular use of the term. — In 

the broad sense, all seed-vessels are fruits. This defini- 
tion covers nuts, grains, and many vegetables ; but we 
commonly class as fruits those seed-vessels eaten with 
sugar, or as a dessert ; and as vegetables, those served 
with meat or in salads. Fifty years ago, when it was 
the custom to eat tomatoes with cream and sugar, they 
were doubtless considered fruit. 

364. Composition and food value of fruits ; fresh fruits. 

— Most fresh fruits contain from 80 to 90 per cent 
of water, and considerable cellulose. They have al- 
most no proteid or fat, and, Avhen ripe, little or no 
starch. Ripening changes their starch to sugars and 
gums. One of these gums is pectin, a sort of " plant 
gelatin." We shall learn more about it when we make 
jelly. Sugar is the only foodstuff found in any con- 
siderable quantity in fruit. Apples, cherries, pears, 
peaches, and oranges contain, on an average, about the 
same amount of sugar (7 to 14 per cent) ; lemons, 
cranberries, and currants, less ; grapes, bananas, and 
dried fruits, more. 

Excepting bananas, fresh fruits have little food value. 
We eat them for their delicious taste, their refreshing, 
thirst-quenching juices, their organic salts, and mineral 
compounds. These last supply sodium, calcium, phos- 
phorus, and other elements essential to pure blood and 
sound tissues. 

365. Bananas contain more carbohydrates than other 
fruits do. In ripe bananas these are mostly in the 



228 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

form of sugar and gum, but the bananas in our mar- 
kets, like all fruits sold far from where they are grown, 
are picked green, and never ripen as perfectly as they 
would on the tree. In this condition they contain con- 
siderable starch, and, therefore, need cooking to develop 
all their food value and flavor. Pineapples contain a 
proteid-digesting ferment. Huckleberries are indigesti- 
ble and irritating unless cooked. If eaten raw, they 
must be well chewed. 

366. Dried fruits. — Dates, raisins, figs, and prunes 
contain 50 to 75 per cent of grape and other fruit 
sugars. This makes them really nutritious. Prunes 
are dried plums ; raisins, dried grapes ; the black cur- 
rants used in cake are dried currants from Greece and 
Asia Minor. Citrons belong to the same family as 
lemons, oranges, grape-fruit, and limes. Citron and 
currants are believed to be quite indigestible. 

Rules for eating Fruit 

367. 1. Eat only sound, ripe fruit. Unripe fruit is 
dangerously indigestible. Over-ripe or partly spoiled 
fruit is poisonous from the bacteria it contains. The 
cheap fruit hawked about the street, after it is too far 
gone for reliable storekeepers to sell, is fit only to be 
thrown away. 

2. As a rule, cooked fruit is less likely to cause sick- 
ness than raw fruit. Fruit not quite ripe and fruit 
kept a little too long may be made safe to eat by 
thorough cooking. 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 229 

3. Fruit is most wholesome eaten by itself, at the 
beginning of a meal, or as dessert ; least wholesome 
in pudding or pie, or after a hearty dinner that has 
included a dessert besides the fruit. 

4. Sweet fruits, such as dates, bananas, figs, are best 
with breakfast cereals and other starchy foods ; acid 
fruits sometimes interfere with the digestion of the 
starch. Explain this. Dates, figs, or prunes supply 
all the sweetening needed with mush. 

5. Do not eat peach, plum, or any other tough fruit- 
skins raw. It is safer not to eat grape seeds. 

6. Eat moderately of raw fruit, especially in hot 
weather. Do not imagine, because it is watery and 
comparatively innutritions, that you can safely eat it 
in unlimited quantities. 

7. Avoid taking milk or cream at the same time 
with acid fruits, particularly with oranges or cherries. 
What is the effect of acids on milk ? 



HOW TO PREPARE AND SERVE FRESH FRUIT 

368. Fresh fruit must be clean. — Fruit and vegetables 
exposed for sale on the streets and sidewalks gather 
dirt, besides decaying quicker than they would if kept 
protected and cool. A law requiring dealers to keep 
these foods indoors and covered would greatly benefit 
the public. If you find a dealer that does this, make 
it a rule to buy of him. Till we have such a law, fruit 
bought in the market must be rinsed or wiped clean. 
Rinse berries quickly in cold water and drain them at 



230 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

once. Soaking hurts their flavor and softens them.^ 
Rinse grapes and other small fruits. Wipe larger fruits 
with a damp cloth. If you like apples polished, rub 
them with soft paper. Wipe the down from peaches. 

Use silver or wooden spoons, silver knives, and 
earthen or enamelled cooking dishes for fruit. What 
class of substances in fruit may form bad-tasting, and 
l^erhaps poisonous, compounds with iron, steel, or 
copper? (§ 105.) 

369. Serving fruit. — Fruit, except when warm from 
tree or vine, should be served as cold as possible. Never 
leave fruit in the dining-room between meals ; keep it 
cool and out of the dust. 

Arrange it tastefully, grouping the colors harmoni- 
ously, if several kinds are placed on one dish. In ar- 
ranging one kind by itself, lay on the plate the leaves 
belonging to it, peach leaves under peaches, grape 
leaves under grapes, or use grape leaves with any fruit. 
Place finger bowls on the table when fruit is served. 
Fruit juice stains white napkins. 

370. Sugaring fruits. — Cut and sugar sliced peaches 
just before serving, as they discolor quickly. Let sliced 
oranges, bananas, and pineapples stand sugared for half 
an hour. Sugar currants, crush them slightly, and let 
them stand till the sugar dissolves. Serve berries un- 
sweetened, and pass powdered sugar, or sugar and cream, 
with them. 

1 Strawberries are never so good after washing. If free from sand 
and clean-looking, they need not be rinsed. 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 231 

371. Oranges. — For breakfast, oranges are served 
whole. Each person cuts his orange in halves across 
the sections, and eats the pulp from these with a spoon. 
To prepare sliced oranges, peel them, pick off the bit- 
ter, indigestible white skin, thrust a fork into the cen- 
tre of the orange, and, with a sharp steel knife, slice off 
the pulp, leaving the pith on the fork. Sprinkle with 
sugar. 

372. Bananas. — Bananas peeled, scraped, and sliced 
may be served mixed with sliced oranges. Or serve 
them by themselves with sugar and a little lemon juice, 
or with sugar, a few grains of salt, and cream. 

373. Muskmelons and grape-fruit, or shaddocks, are 

served as a first course at breakfast or lunch. Cut grape- 
fruit in two, loosen the pulp from the skin of the sec- 
tions with a knife, sprinkle with sugar, and eat from 
the peel with a spoon. Cut melons in two, remove the 
seeds, and put a piece of ice in each. 

374. Pineapple. — To prepare pineapple for the table, 
cut off the skin and dig out the eyes ; then, holding 
the pineapple on one fork, with another tear the pulp 
into shreds, and cut or scrape the shreds off with a 
knife, leaving the woody core untouched. Sprinkle 
with sugar. 

HOW TO COOK FRUIT 

375. What effect will cooking have upon the cellu- 
lose in fruit ? Upon the starch, if there is any ? Upon 
germs of disease or decay ? 



232 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Fruit loses some of its sweetness in coobing. All 
fruits, except the sweetest, require, when stewed, the 
addition of sugar. Figs and prunes are so sweet that 
a little lemon juice improves them. 

Directions for stewing fruit. — Cut pears, apples, or 
quinces in pieces. Slice or shred pineapples. Cook 
small fruits whole. Put into a saucepan half as much 
water as you have fruit. Add for each pint of fruit 
one-fourth to one-half cupful of sugar, according to the 
acidity of the fruit. When the sugar and water boil, 
put in the fruit. If enough juice does not flow to 
make the syrup cover the fruit, add boiling water until 
it does. When the fruit is soft, but not mushy, taste 
it ; add more sugar if needed ; stir until this dissolves ; 
then take out the fruit. If the syrup is watery, boil it 
down before pouring it over the fruit. Fruit not quite 
ripe, or hard fruit, such as quince, should be cooked in 
clear water till soft, and then sweetened. 

Recipes 

Apple Sauce 

Prepare sour apples, as for stewing. Put them into 
a saucepan with enough water to keep them from burn- 
ing, and one cupful of sugar to six or eight apples. 
Cook till the apple is very soft, stirring or beating to 
make it smooth. If the apples lack flavor, cook an inch 
of stick cinnamon or five or six cloves with them. 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING POODS 233 

Baked Apples 

Wash and core large, sound, sweet apples ; put them 
into an earthen or enamelled ware baking-dish. Put 
one tablespoonful of brown sugar into each cavity, and 
pour boiling water into the dish, one-half cupful for 
each eight apples. Bake until soft, frequently dipping 
over the apples the syrup that forms in the pan. Serve 
cold with cream or milk. If the apples are thick- 
skinned, pare them (after coring, that they may not be 
broken by knife or corer). If they lack flavor add a 
little lemon juice and cinnamon to the sugar — one tea- 
spoonful of lemon juice and one-fourth teaspoonful of 
cinnamon to one-fourth cupful of sugar. 

Pears, quartered, are baked or stewed like apples. 

Baked Bananas 

1. Choose sound, ripe bananas ; cut about three- 
fourths of an inch off of each end, and bake in an earthen 
or enamelled ware baking-dish for thirty minutes. Slit 
open the skin, and eat the banana, which should be 
sweet and juicy, with a fork or spoon. 

2. Remove bananas from skins, lay in a baking-dish, 
sprinkle with granulated sugar, and pour a little cold 
water into the dish. Bake in a hot oven until tender. 
Serve for breakfast, or with Lemon Sauce for dessert. 
(For recipe for Lemon Sauce, see p. 271.) 

Cranberry Jelly 

Cranberries, 1 quart. Water, 1 cupful. 

Sugar, 1 pound. 



234 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Pick over and wash the cranberries, cook them slowly 
with the water for about fifteen minutes, and press 
through a strainer. Return to the fire, and add the 
sugar, stirring until it is dissolved. Boil without stir- 
ring five minutes longer, pour into a mold, and let it 
stand until firm enough to turn out. Serve with poul- 
try, mutton, or game. 

Lemonade 

Lemon juice, Yz cupful. Water, 1 quart. 

Sugar, 1 cupful. 

One way. — Mix lemon juice and sugar, add the water, 
and stir until the sugar dissolves, strain, and ice. 

The best way. — Have the water boiling, pour it on to 
the lemon juice and sugar, strain, and, when cold, ice. 

376. Rhubarb, though not strictly a fruit, is so like 
fruit in composition that it may be classed with it. It 
can be had in the spring before fruit is plentiful, yet 
when we crave vegetable juice and acid. 

Rhubarb Sauce 

Steamed. — Cut off the leaves. Wash the stalks, and 
cut them into one-inch lengths. To each pint of rhubarb 
add one cupful of sugar, and cook it in a double boiler 
till soft. Add more sugar if it tastes too sour. Do not 
stir it. The pieces of rhubarb should be unbroken. 

Baked. — Prepare and sweeten the rhubarb as for 
steaming. Cook it in a deep dish in a moderate oven 
until tender and deep-red in color. 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 235 

377. Imported dried fruits are usually dirty. Dates and 
figs need rinsing with boiling water, and are better if 
steamed or stewed in a little water till tender. Stewed 
figs with cream are delicious. Select shrivelled, dry- 
looking prunes ; plumper ones have been soaked to 
make them look well, and the purchaser pays for the 
water they have absorbed. 

Dried apples, peaches, and apricots, after soaking for 
several hours in water, are cooked like fresh fruit. 

Stewed Prunes 

Prunes, 1 pound. Sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Lemon, 1, sHced. 

Wash the prunes, and soak them for several hours, or 
over night, in cold water enough to cover them. Add 
sugar and lemon, and cook them thirty minutes, or un- 
til soft. Or omit the sugar, and cook by moderate heat 
one hour or longer to develop the natural sweetness in 
the fruit. 

Reading. — "The Cape Cod Cranberry" (illustrated), in Har- 
per's Weekly, Vol. XLI, p. 1012, October 9, 1897 ; " The Grape In- 
dustry," in the Chautauquan, Vol. XXIV, December, 1896 ; Foods 
and Beverages, pp. 169-214; Food Products of the World, Chapter 
XXIV, pp. 217-233. 

Section 2. Vegetables 

The common growth of mother earth suffices me. — Wordsworth. 
The secret of the cooking of vegetables is the judicious production 
of flavor. — Ellen H. Richards. 

378. We eat as vegetables the fruits, or seed-vessels, 
of some plants ; of others the root, the leaves, or some 
other part. 



236 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Vegetables, like fruits, contain mineral salts impor- 
tant to health. What salts are found in potatoes? 
Vegetables valued chiefly for these salts are frequently 
eaten raw ; to this class belong lettuce, celery, cucum- 
bers, and all ''salad plants." Many vegetables, how- 
ever, require cooking. If we analyze one, we shall see 
why. 

Study of a Carrot 

379. Examine and analyze a carrot just as you did 
the potato, and make a table showing its structure and 
composition. Is it a root or a tuber ?i Where is it 
most woody ? In the spring you may be able to get 
both young and old carrots. Compare them. Which 
has the thicker skin? The more cellulose? The cen- 
tres of very old carrots may be too hard to eat. Do 
carrots contain starch ? Do you know or can you tell 
from their structure and composition which will take 
longer to cook, a potato, or a carrot of the same size ? 

Carrots contain more water than potatoes do ; why 
are they not good baked? 

380. Foodstuffs in carrots. — Carrots contain sugar, 
gum, and about one-fourth as much starch as potatoes 
do ; of the mineral compounds in them the most impor- 
tant are potash salts. (For percentage composition of 
carrots and other vegetables, see table on pp. 319-326.) 

1 Roots of certain plants sometimes bud and sprout. Scoop out a 
carrot or a sweet potato for half its length ; hang up this carrot or 
sweet-potato cup by a string, and keep it full of water. Sprouts will 
appear, but not from regularly placed eyes or bud-scales, as on pota- 
toes or other plant-stems. 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 237 

381. How plants and animals make food ready for man. — 

Roots are the feeding organs of plants. They suck up 
water and food from the earth. We have seen that 
cattle turn grass into beef and milk for our use ; grass, 
grain, and every edible plant that grows, work the 
mineral matter of the earth into cellulose, starch, sugar, 
for animals or men. 

382. Analysis of Peas. — A. Rub some cooked green or dried 
peas through a sieve, washing the pulp through with water. 
What is left on the sieve ? B. Test for starch the pulp that passes 
through. C. Analyze beans in the same way. 

383. Vegetables that supply proteid : peas, beans, lentils. 

— We see that peas and beans may be considered 
starchy vegetables. But they also contain much pro- 
teid matter, as is proven by their turning yellow if 
treated with nitric acid. In China a kind of cheese is 
made from them. This fact makes the name " vege- 
table casein," sometimes given to one of the proteids in 
peas and beans, seem appropriate. Legumin is, how- 
ever, a better name for this substance. Although there 
are greater quantities of other proteids in peas and 
beans," they, together with lentils, another of the pulses, 
or pod-forming plants, are classed as legumes. 

Studies of Growing Vegetables 

384. — 1. Make drawings of a pea-plant or a bean-plant at dif- 
ferent stages of growth, noting how the cotyledons shrivel as the 
seedling grows. Explain this. (§§ 146 and 147.) 

2. A. — Cover half an onion split lengthwise, with warm water, 
renewing this several times a day to hasten the experiment. 



238 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

What takes place in the centre of the onion, and at the base of the 
leaves? What becomes of the leaves as the shoot grows? Where 
does the onion store its food ? B. Test the onion for starch. 

An onion is a bulb, that is, an underground stem sur- 
rounded by overlapping leaves, thickened by stored-up 
food material. 

385. Food value of vegetables ; selecting vegetables with 
regard to food to be served at the same meal. — All vege- 
tables are valuable for their mineral salts, some furnish 
a considerable amount of carbohydrates, a few are rich 
in both carbohydrates and proteids. All, however, con- 
tain a large proportion of water and comparatively 
indigestible material. This makes them suitable to eat 
with concentrated foods, such as eggs and meat ; for 
this indigestible stuff, consisting largely of cellulose, 
helps to fill the stomach and keep the mass of food 
loose, so that as this turns, every part of it comes in 
contact with the gastric juice. The rough bits of cellu- 
lose are useful, besides, in stimulating the intestines 
to action, so that their contents are kept constantly 
moving. 

On the other hand, it is probably because of the 
cellulose walls surrounding plant proteids, that these 
proteids are not so completely digested as animal pro- 
teids ; so that three ounces of green peas cannot be 
counted on to build as much tissue as one ounce of 
beefsteak, although the quantity of tissue-building 
material supplied is in each case the same. Peas and 
beans may to some extent, however, take the place of 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 239 

animal proteid food. Lentils, which are much used in 
Europe, are more digestible than either peas or beans. 

Experiments show that part of the cellulose of 
carrots, celery, and lettuce is slowly digested and 
absorbed. If tender, it is more digestible raw and 
crisp than cooked. Thus cooked cabbage is less readily 
digestible than raw, and most indigestible when boiled 
till sodden and stringy. 

If you were to have both meat and fish for dinner, 
would you serve tomato or split pea soup ? What 
vegetables are suitable with roast beef ? Which are 
suitable for a meal at which little or no meat is 
served ? Pork is fat, a fuel food ; what vegetable 
goes well with it ? What sort of vegetables should 
be served with lean meat ? Tomato, or a vegetable 
dressed with acid — pickled beets or cole-slaw — is 
appetizing with fish. With delicately flavored meat, 
such as chicken or veal, do not serve a strong vege- 
table like cabbage. Custom prescribes peas with lamb, 
apple sauce with pork and goose, cranberry sauce with 
turkey. 

386. Selecting vegetables in the market. — Choose vege- 
tables that are in season. Those forced in hot-beds or 
brought from a distance are seldom equal to native 
produce, garden grown, — besides being too expensive 
for most purses. Know what each is worth when 
plentiful, and you will not be tempted to pay four or 
five times that sum for it out of season. 

Choose medium-sized or small vegetables. Large 



240 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

vegetables are usually old and woody ; they require 
more fuel to cook them than younger ones do, and are 
less nutritious. A measure holds a greater weight of 
small vegetables than of large ones — one reason why 
they ought to be sold by the pound. Large squashes 
and cucumbers are seedy ; corn with large kernels is 
tough. 

The signs of freshness and good quality in particu- 
lar vegetables are given in the table on pp. 244-247. 
Stale or wilted vegetables are never economical, and are 
likely to be unwholesome. 

If you get your vegetables from the garden, gather 
them while the dew is on them. 

387. Care of vegetables. — Keep winter vegetables, 
except squashes, in a cool, dark, dry place, piled up 
to exclude air. Squashes keep better spread out in a 
rather warm, dry place. What grows on food in the 
damp ? Keep green vegetables in the refrigerator or 
other cold place till used. 

388. Preparation of vegetables. — 1. Fresh. Wash all 
fresh vegetables. Even if they look clean, they may 
be spoiled by impure water used in watering, by insect 
poison, or in other ways. Eggs of insects swallowed 
raw may produce worms in the human body. Soak in 
cold water vegetables not fresh from the garden. How 
does water affect wilted flowers ? In the same way it 
makes vegetables firm and crisp. 

389. 2. Dried. Dried peas and beans must be soaked 
to restore the water lost by evaporation. Weigh a pint of 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 241 

beans before and after soaking. What do they gain in 
weight ? 3. Canned. As soon as the can is opened, 
turn out all the contents. Why ? Drain off the liquid 
from peas and beans and rinse them. Let all canned 
food stand awhile to regain the oxygen lost by canning. 
Heat, season, and serve like fresh vegetables. 

HOW TO COOK VEGETABLES 

390. People are not agreed on what are the best ways 
of cooking vegetables. Too many cooks think only of 
getting them soft, without regard to retaining their 
juices and salts. Vegetables cooked in water lose a 
large proportion of their foodstuffs. In carrots this loss 
may amount to 20 per cent of their whole value when 
they are cut into large pieces, to 30 per cent when they 
are cut small. Cabbage loses about one-third of its food 
value. Until we have more accurate knowledge, we can 
only try to make each vegetable palatable, endeavoring 
at the same time to keep it as nutritious as possible. 
The directions for cooking vegetables given in the 
table on pp. 244-247 are based upon the following 
general rules : — 

General Rules for cooking Vegetables. 

391. 1. Cook vegetables whole when practicable. 
When not practicable, cut them into as large pieces as 
are convenient. If the cooking water is to be served 
with the vegetable, the pieces may be smaller than 
would otherwise be desirable. 



242 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

2. Use only as much water as is necessary to cover 
the vegetable. For small or cut-up vegetables that can 
be stirred, use just enough to keep them from burning, 
adding more as this cooks away. 

3. Use the cooking water, if palatable, in sauces, 
soup-stock, cream-of -vegetable soups, etc. It contains 
much nutritive matter dissolved from the vegetables. 

4. For vegetables cooked whole or in large pieces, 
keep the water boiling, that they may cook in the 
shortest possible time. Peas, beans, and any vegetables 
served in the cooking water are better simmered. 

5. Green vegetables keep their color better if cooked 
uncovered. The reason for this is not known. Cook 
onions and cabbage uncovered ; their odor is less notice- 
able when allowed to pass off continually than when 
escaping occasionally in bursts of steam. 

6. The time required to cook any given vegetable 
depends upon its size, age, and freshness. Old beets 
may be so Avoody that they cannot be cooked tender. 
Dried or wilted vegetables cook more quickly if first 
soaked in cold water. Think of the part water plays 
in cooking starch, and explain why this is so. 

392. Seasoning vegetables. — Use two teaspoonfuls of 
salt to one quart of water. To one pint of small, 
cooked vegetables, — beans, peas, onions, etc., — or to 
one pint of mashed or cubed turnips, potatoes, etc., use 
two tablespoonfuls of butter, one-half teaspoonful of 
salt, and one-eighth teaspoonful of white pepper. 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 243 

393. Scalloped vegetables. — Many kinds of cooked 
vegetables may be scalloped, — potatoes, onions, cab- 
bage, and cauliflower being excellent so prepared. 

For scalloping, cut potatoes into cubes, quarter or 
tear apart onions, separate the flowerets of cauliflower. 
Cabbage leaves, if not separated before cooking, must 
be pulled apart. Season the vegetable as directed 
above, put it into a baking-dish, pour over it Thin 
White Sauce, allowing one cupful and a half of sauce 
to each pint of vegetables. Cover with buttered 
crumbs, and bake till the crumbs are brown. 

Ingredients for Thin White Sauce 

Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. Milk, 1 cupful. 

Flour, \}i tablespoonfuls. Salt, y^ teaspoonful, or more. 

Pepper, }i teaspoonful. 

394. Vegetables served raw. Celery. Use only the 
inner stalks. Wash these, scraping them if not per- 
fectly white, cut off all but a little of the tops, and 
soak in cold water till crisp. Serve them laid in a 
glass dish. Cucumbers. The seeds and coarse fibres 
of cucumbers make them one of the most indigestible 
of foods. Soaking in salt water wilts them, increasing 
their indigestibility. Pare them, cut thick slices from 
the ends to remove medicinal salts, and slice thin. 
Radishes. Wash and cut off the tops, make cuts across 
the tops of the roots through the skin, and turn this 
back in points. Tomatoes. Peel and slice in half-inch 
slices. (See Preparation of Tomatoes in table.) Serve 
very cold. 





Keep the rest 
of the water 
to use in mak- 
ing Cream- 
of-Asparagus 
Soup. 




Cooking in 
salted water 
wrinkles and 
hardens corn. 


6 
00 


Drain, and butter. 
Serve on strips of 
toast moistened 
with the cook- 
ing water and 
buttered. 


Serve with o u t 
draining; sea- 
son with butter 
and i)epper. 


liemove husks and 
serve ears whole, 
In a napkin. Or 
shave off" the top 
of the kernels, 
scrape out the 
pulp with the 
back of a knife, 
season with but- 
ter, pepper, and 
salt, and reheat 
with a little milk. 


K 
S 

H 


5 .- .2 


"^ ra 


H 


d 

5 

o 

Q 
O 

a 


Stand the asparagus in 
a deep kettle, and 
pour in boiling water 
to cover all but the 
tips. Let it boil tightly 
covered till the stalks 
are tender. The steam 
cooks the heads. Salt 
when nearly tender. 


Cook uncovered in 
barely enough boiling 
water to cover them. 
Let this boil down 
toward the last. Salt 
when nearly done. 


Cook in boiling water 
until, when a kernel 
is pressed, no juice 
flows. 


u 

to 


Cut stalks off as far 
down as they are 
brittle. Untie the 
bunches, wash stalks, 
and retie them in 
bunches right to serve 
to one person. Tie 
these into one bunch 
again, and stand it in 
cold water till put on 
to cook. 


-a 

a 
.a 


Take off outer husks ; 
remove silk ; fold in- 
ner husks back over 
the ear. 


e 

i'l 

Q 


Stalks should be green ; 
the ends should show 
that they have been 
recently cut. 
Keep standing in 
cold water. 


11 

P. 

tcji: a 


Silk should be brown. 
Tear husk open, and 
see that ear is filled 
with well-developed 
kernels. Try a ker- 
nel with your nail, — 
sweet milky juice 
should flow. Remove 
outer husks as soon 
as it comes from 
market. Cook as soon 
as possible. Corn is 
injured by keeping. 


i 


• 

<! 
< 

00 

< 


'5~ 


5 



244 





Tops of sum- 
mer beetP 
may be 
cooked with 
roots, and 
served se])a- 
r a t e 1 y as 
"greens." 

Avoid trying 
beets till you 
think they 
are r e a 1 1 \ 
done. 




Serve without 
draining; sea- 
son with butter 
and pepper. 


Paib oflf the skins 
with a dry cloth. 
Slice large beets, 
quarter small 
ones. Season 
with butter, pej)- 
])er, and salt. 


Drain, and season 
with butter, salt, 
and pepper, or 
mi.\ with white 
sauce. 


For 
young 
beans, 

1 hr. 
For old 

ones, 

2 to 3 
hrs. 


For 
young 
beets, 
about 

1 hr. 
For old 
beets, 
4 or 5 

hrs. 


1 a 


Cook in barely enough 
boiling water to cover 
them, letting this boil 
down when beans are 
nearly cooked. Salt 
when nearly done. 


Cook in boiling water 
till tender. Salt half 
an hour before taking 
from fire. 


Cook inner leaves, un- 
covered, in boiling 
salted water till ten- 
der, but not sodden. 


Wash, pull off the 
strings, and snap or 
cut the pods into inch 
pieces. 


Wash, taking care not 
to break the skin. 
Cut tops off about two 
inches above the root. 
If cut sJiort, the 
beet will lose color 
and sweetness. 


Remove outer leaves. 
Cut out stalk, and sep- 
arate inner leaves, re- 
moving any insects 
found. 


Break a pod ; it should 
be brittle. Strings 
should be delicate, 
and beans very small. 


Choose those with dirty 
roots and fresh, green 
leaves. If roots are 
clean, beets have prob- 
ably wilted and been 
freshened by soaking. 


Choose a hard, heavy 
one, with crisp white 
leaves, and stalk cut 
close to the head. 

Keep in cool, dark i)lace. 


it 

r 


i 


% 

CO 



245 



i 

< 


Peas and carrot 
cubes are a 
good garnish 
for meat. 


Save root for 
soup stock, 
water for 
Cream-of- 
Celery Soup. 
Serve inner 
stalks raw. 


Should the peas 
lack sweet- 
ness, add ^ to 
1 teaspoonful 
of sugar to 
each half-peck 
of peas while 
cooling. 


> 
OQ 


Serve in thin white 
sauce, or with 
green peas. 

Serve in thin white 
sauce. 


Drain, and serve 
covered, with 
white sauce. 


Serve without drain- 
ing ; season with 
butter and pep- 
per. 




30 min. 
to 1 br. 

20 to 30 
min. 




H 


5 

o 

a 

O 

Q 
O 


Cook in boiling water. 

Cook in a small quantity 
of boiling water. 


Simmer them till ten- 
der in water to cover 
them. 


Cook in barely enough 
water to cover, add- 
ing salt 15 minutes 
before taking from 
fire. Let water boil 
down when peas are 
nearly cooked. 


63 

z 

y 

H 
63 
Pi 


Wash and scrape ; drop 
into cold water. 

Wash and scrape; cut 
into half-inch cubes. 


Cut off root ; wash and 
scrape outer stalks ; 
cut them into one- 
inch pieces. 


1 

t 
|| 

xi ^ 


6 

63 


See that leaves are green 
and fresh. 

Choose the smaller ones. 


2 
II 

C5 


See that pods are green 
and brittle, peas green. 
Young peas are small. 
Cook as soon as pos- 
sible. Peas are in- 
jured by keeping. 


vi 

n 
•< 


Carrots. 
Young 
(summer). 

Old 
(winter). 


63 
H 


1 



246 



Kather old spin- 
ach may be 
better cooked 
in water and 
drained. 


If very watery, 
press outpart 
of the juice 
by squeezing 
the pieces of 
squash be- 
tween the 
colander and 
a plate. 


Pink tomatoes 
are usually 
less acid than 
red ones. 


Season with butter, 
salt, and pepper, 
and reheat. 


Mash, and season 
with butter, salt, 
and pepper. 

Scoopoutinnerpart. 
Rub through a 
colander ; season 
with butter, pep- 
per, and salt. 


Add for each pint 
of tomatoes 1 tb. 
butter, I t. salt, 
a few grains of 
pepper, and 1 or 
2 t. of sugar. To 
thicken, stir in 
2 tb. of pounded 
and sifted cracker 
crumbs; or omit 
crumbs and serve 
on buttered toast. 


About 

15 
min. 


About 
30 min. 

About 
40 min. 


About 

20 
min. 


Cook in its own juices, 
heating it gradually 
till these are drawn 
out. 


Cook in a steamer or a 
strainer placed over 
boiling water. 

Steam like summer 
squash. 


a 

% 

a 
s 


Cut off roots, stems, 
and poor leaves ; wash 
by lifting from one 
pan of cold water to 
another, till water is 
free from sand. 


Wash, cut into pieces, 
and pare. 

Break into pieces with 
hatchet ; take out 
shreds and seeds. 


Let them stand covered 
with boiling water 
for one minute to 
loosen the skins ; peel 
and cut into pieces. 


Choose that with leaves 
fresh and dirty. If 
clean, they have 
wilted and been 
soaked to revive them. 


Good ones are light 
yellow, the shell ten- 
der enough to be bro- 
ken with the finger- 
nail. 

Choose sound ones with 
no soft spots. If you 
buy a quantity, keep 
them spread out in a 
dry place. 


Best ones are firm, 
smooth, and evenly 
red, with no decayed, 
bruised, or green 
spots. 


Spinach. 


Squash. 
Crookneck 
or Sum- 
mer. 

Hubbard 
or 
Winter. 





247 



248 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Suggestions about cooking and serving 
Vegetables 

395. 1. Strong-flavored vegetables may have to be 
cooked in a generous supply of water to make them 
palatable. As this wastes them, it is better to buy 
mild-flavored ones. 

2. Avoid piercing vegetables to see if they are 
cooked. A knitting-needle breaks them less than a 
fork. 

3. As one object in using vegetables is to give 
variety to our diet, take pains to vary the vegetables 
served from day to day ; if you can get but few kinds, 
vary the ways of cooking these. 

4. Take particular pains to make winter vegetables 
attractive to sight and taste. 

Suggestions for home work and reading. — Make a list of the 
parts of plants used as vegetable, and write each under its proper 
head, — beet under root, celery under stalk, etc. As you become 
familiar with other plant foods add them to the list, — cinnamon 
under bark, maple syrup under sap, etc. Write in tabular form 
directions for selecting, keeping, preparing, cooking, and serving 
potatoes, or any other vegetable not included in the table on 
pp. 244-247. Some common vegetables are treated of in Chapter 
XXII of Food Products of the World, p. 193. 

Section 3. Cream-of-Vegetable Soups (Purees) 

396. A puree is the pulp of a cooked vegetable, 
strained and thinned slightly with milk or cream. A 
cream-of- vegetable soup is a very thin puree. Vegetables 
too old or too tough to be served whole should be made 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 249 

into soup or puree, as straining removes the hull and 
coarse fibre, leaving the digestible part of the vegeta- 
ble. Flour or cornstarch is added to these soups to 
keep the vegetable from settling. This flour or corn- 
starch and the butter usually mixed with it are called 
" binding material," because they bind together the 
solid and liquid parts of the soup. 

Recipe for Green Pea Soup 

Green peas, 1 pint, or 1 can. Salt, 1 teaspoonful. 
Boiling water, 1 (juart. Pepper, i^ teaspoonful. 

Milk, 1 pint. Sugar, yi to 1 teaspoonful (more 

Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. for old peas than for young). 

Flour, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Cook the onion with the peas in the water. Scald 
the milk. When the peas are very soft, remove the 
onion and mash the peas through a strainer, add to 
them the milk, and reheat. Rub the flour and butter 
together, stir into them a little of the soup, and turn 
this mixture back into the rest of the soup. Stir till 
smooth, add seasoning and sugar, and serve with 
croutons. 

397. To prepare croutons, cut buttered slices of bread 
one-half inch thick into half-inch squares. Heat these 
on a pan in the oven, stirring occasionally, till they are 
crisp and golden-brown. Pass them with soup. They 
may be kept and reheated. 



250 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Recipe for Tomato Soup without Stock 

Note. — This soup, although it contains no milk or cream, is given 
here because in other respects it is made like cream-of-vegetable 
soups. 

Tomatoes, 1 can, or Celery salt, 1 teaspoonful, or 

Fresh-cooked tomatoes, 1 quart. Salt, 1 teaspoonful, and a sprig 
Hot water, 1 pint. of celery cooked in the soup. 

Butter, X cupful. Pepper, a few grains. 

Cornstarch, 3 tablespoonfuls. Onion, 1 slice. 

Cloves, 4. Sugar, 1 tablespoonful. 

Cook water, tomatoes, onions, and cloves together for 
twenty minutes ; add the butter, stir in the cornstarch 
wet to a smooth paste with cold water ; boil the soup 
till clear, and season. 

Cornstarch is used in this recipe because it gives a 
clearer soup than flour does. Why is it mixed with 
water instead of with butter ? Which lumps most 
easily, pure starch or flour ? Why ? Why is more 
thickening required for tomato than for pea soup ? 

398. General proportions of ingredients for cream-of-vege- 
table soups. — To one quart of liquid (water, milk, stock) 
use one to two cupfuls of vegetable pulp^ two tablespoonfuls 
of butter^ one to three tablespoonfuls of flour ^ one teaspoon- 
ful of salt, and from a feiv grains to one-eighth of a tea- 
spoonful of pepper. 

General directions for making cream-of-vegetable soups. — 
A cream-of-vegetable soup is practically white sauce, 
with the addition of vegetable pulp. Cook the vegeta- 
ble in water till very soft. Press it through a sieve, 



TABLE OF CREAM-OF-VEGETABLE SOUPS 



Namu oif Soup. 


Vkgetablkr. 


LlCitTID. 


Binding or 
Thickening. 


Seasoning. 


Other Ingredients. 


Special Directions for preparing the Soups. 
For General Directions, see § 398. 


Water. 


Milk. 


Butter. 


Flour. 


Cream oftoiiiato. 


Tomatoes, V2 can. 




Iqt. 


2tb. 


3tb. 


Salt, 1 t. 
Pepper, Vs t. 


Soda, a few grains. 


Scald the milk, and thicken it with the flour and butter. Cook 
the tomatoes ten minutes, or till soft, add the soda, and 
strain. Stir the tomato slowly into the thickened milk, 
taking care that it does not cook after being mixed, and 
serve at once. 


Cream of aspar- 
agus. 


Asparagus, 1 
bun(!h. 


Iqt. (Boil down to 
1 pt.) 


Ipt. 


2tb. 


2tb. 


Salt, 1 t. 

Pepper, a few grains. 




Break off the heads, and cook them with the stalks in the 
water. Take out the heads as soon as they are tender, and 
either serve them on toast, or put them in the tureen before 
turning in the soup. 


Croam of celery. 


C(ilery, .'5 roots, 
or 3 outside 
pieces of 3 
stalks with 
leaves. 


1 pt. hot, or enough 
to cover the cel- 
ery. 


Iqt. 


2tb. 


2tb. 


Salt, 11/2 1. 
Celery salt, Va t. 
Pepper, Va t. 




Wash the celery, cut it into short pieces, and simmer it in the 
water till soft. 


Cream of tur- 
nip, carrot, 
etc. 


Mashed v e g e- 
table, 1 to 'Jc. 


1 pt. of the water 
the vegetable was 
cooked in. 


Ipt. 


2tb. 


2tb. 


Salt and pepper, according 
to quantity of seasoning 
already added to the veg- 
etable. 




If a " left-over " mashed vegetable is used, heat the milk and 
water together, and pour them on to it. Strain and bind as 
usual. 


Potato. 


."5 largo potatoes. 




Iqt. 


2tb. 


2tb. 


Salt, 1 t. 
Pepper, Va t. 


Parsley, 2 t. 
Bit of bay-leaf. 
Onion, 1 slice. 
Celery-root (if on 
hand). 


Boil the potatoes, and mash them through a strainer into a 
saucepan. Cook the onion in the milk. When the latter 
reaches the scalding-point, take out the onion, and stir the 
milk into the jjotato. Bind with the flour and butter; 
season ; strain into a tureen, and sprinkle with parsley. 


Split pea. 


Dried split peas, 
Ic. 


3 pts. cold. 


Enough to 
thin the 
soup prop- 
erly. 1 


2 tb. 


2tb. 


Salt, 1 t. 
Pepper, Vs t. 


Ham-bone, slice of 
onion, or both, may 
be cooked with the 
peas. 


Soak the peas over night. In the morning drain them and 
simmer them in the water two hours or more, adding more 
water as the first boils away. When very soft rub peas and 
water through a strainer. 











Name of Soup. 


Vegetables. 


Liquid. 


Water. 


Milk. 


Cream of tomato. 


Tomatoes, V2 can. 




Iqt. 


Cream of aspar- 
agus. 


Asparagus, 1 
bunch. 


1 qt. (Boil down to 
1 pt.) 


Ipt. 


Cream of celery. 


Celery, 3 roots, 
or 3 outside 
pieces of 3 
stalks with 
leaves. 


1 pt. hot, or enough 
to cover the cel- 
ery. 


1 qt. 


Cream of tur- 
nip, carrot, 
etc. 


Mashed v e g e- 
table, 1 to 2 c. 


1 pt. of the water 
the vegetable was 
cooked in. 


Ipt. 


Potato. 


3 large potatoes. 




1 qt. 


Split pea. 


Dried split peas, 
Ic. 


3 pts. cold. 


Enough to 
thin the 
soup prop- 
erly. 











ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 251 

vegetable press, or strainer, using the cooking water to 
help wash the pulp througli. Heat milk and pulp 
together, stir into them the binding material (corn- 
starch mixed with water, or flour mixed with butter), 
boil till smooth, and season. If too thick, add more 
milk. The coarser the vegetable, the coarser should 
be the strainer used. Onions, herbs, and whole spices 
may be cooked in the water or milk used in the soup ; 
other seasonings are added at the last. To make the 
soup richer, part cream may be used instead of all milk, 
white stock instead of water, or a beaten egg or a few 
spoonfuls of whipped cream may be put into the tureen 
before turning in the soup. 

Study the table below, noting in what respects the 
soups are alike, in what different. Think out, if you 
can, the reasons for variations in quantity of water 
used, time of cooking, etc. 

Caution. — Cream-of-tomato soup must be made with 
great care to prevent the acid in the tomatoes from 
curdling the milk. Adding a bit of soda helps to 
neutralize the acid. Draw the saucepan away from 
the heat before adding the soda ; otherwise the 
tomato may foam over. Explain this. What gas is 
formed? (§§ 193 and 194.) Pour the tomato slowly 
into the milk ; if the milk be poured into the tomato, 
it will curdle. Take care not to combine milk and 
tomato till just before the soup is served, as milk heated 
with acid is almost sure to curdle. 



252 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Bean Puree 

Beans, 1 quart. Baking-soda, % teaspoonful. 

Onion, 1 small one. Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Carrot, 2 slices. Milk or cream. 

A bit of bay-leaf. Salt, ^ teaspoonful. 

Pepper, a few grains. 

Wash the beans, and soak in cold water over night. 
In the morning drain, cover them with cold water, and 
when this boils, drain them again. Add soda, onion, 
bay-leaf, and carrot. Boil gently until the beans are 
soft ; then press them through a colander, add butter, 
salt, pepper, and milk or cream enough to thin the 
pur^e to your taste. Serve as a vegetable. 

Section 4. Salads 

A cheap but wholesome salad from the brook. — Cowper. 

399. The salad, or " salet," of olden times was 
always a dish of green herbs dressed with vinegar and 
other condiments. Now eggs, many kinds of meat, 
fish, and fruit, and almost all kinds of vegetables, 
cooked as well as raw, are used in salads, singly, or 
combined with a dressing containing oil, butter, or 
cream. 

Salad-making 

400. Four things essential in salad-making. — A salad 
must be cold^ the greens in it crisp^ the ingredients in 
the dressing carefully proportioned and blended so that 
it shall be neither oily nor acid, and the whole well- 
mixed. With these conditions fulfilled, a handful of 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 253 

lettuce leaves dressed with salt, pepper, oil, and vine- 
gar is in its way to a perfect dish. Because of the 
judgment and deftness required to produce this perfec- 
tion, the master or mistress of the house frequently 
prefers to dress such a salad rather than to have it 
brought to the table dressed. 

401. Preparing the ingredients. — Lettuce is used as a 
bed for any salad. As soon as it comes into the house, 
sprinkle it, and put it in a covered tin pail in the ice- 
box. To prepare it for use, cut off the stem, separate 
the leaves, and let them lie for at least fifteen minutes 
in the coldest water you can provide. Wash them 
clean, taking care not to break them ; look sharply to 
see that no insects cling to them, shake lightly or 
swing them in a wire basket or a salad-net ^ to partially 
dry them, and wipe them carefully with a soft cloth. 
If left wet, the dressing runs off of them. Freshen 
and dry other salad leaves in the same way. Other 
vegetables. — (For tomatoes and cucumbers, see p. 243.) 
Remove the strings from string beans, and cook them 
without breaking or cutting. Keep parsley in a glass 
of water, with only the roots wet. Cut cooked vegetables 
except potatoes into half-inch cubes, or small irregular 
bits. Put remnants of cooked vegetables into a colan- 
der and pour hot water over them to rinse off any 
butter. 

1 Bags made of coarse netting are sold for this purpose. 



254 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Plain French Dressing 

Salt, Yz teaspoonful. Olive oil, 3 tablespoonfuls. 

Pepper, %. teaspoonful. Vinegar, (malt, wine, or tarra- 

gon,) 1 tablespoonful. 

Onion juice (if desired), or rub the salad bowl with a clove of 
garlic. 

Stir the seasonings into the oil, add the vinegar, and 
stir vigorously until the dressing thickens slightly. 
A larger quantity made in the same proportions may 
be passed in a bowl. 

French dressing may be served with any green salad. 

Mayonnaise or cooked salad dressing are appropriate 
with string beans, tomatoes, celery, or cauliflower. 
Cooked dressing is used with cabbage ; Mayonnaise 
usually with meat or fish. 

402. Arranging the salad. — If only lettuce is to be 
served, put it in a pretty bowl, either glass, or of some 
color that looks well with the green of the leaves. 
Arrange these to form a frill above the edge of the 
dish, and let the centre be a nest of cool, shadowy green. 
The arranging of salads gives a girl a chance to dis- 
play artistic skill no less than does the embroidering 
of a doily, or the making of a sketch. How satis- 
factory to be able to combine those few spoonfuls of 
peas, beets, potatoes, and what not, left from two or 
three dinners, into a pyramid of pretty colors, wreathed 
with green and blossoming with radish " rose-buds " I 
(Macedoine Salad.) Or, starting with fresh mate- 
rials, what pleasure may be found in bringing out the 



PLATE XI. 




Macedoine Salad. 




Home-made Pasteurize] 

For description, see p. 292. 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 255 

beauty of glowing tomatoes nestled in palest green, and 
crowned with golden Mayonnaise ! (Stuffed Tomato 
Salad.) Nor do thrift and taste and judgment alone 
come into play in salad-making ; use your originality 
and invention, and you can produce many a salad not 
described in cook-books, but delightful to eye and taste. 

403. To dress lettuce at the table, mix oil and season- 
ings in the salad spoon, pour them over the lettuce, 
and toss and turn this till every leaf is coated. Then 
add the vinegar, and toss again. To vary the flavor, 
have the salad bowl rubbed with a " clove of garlic," 
or have a piece of bread rubbed with garlic at the bot- 
tom of the bowl. 

404. Reasons why salads should be eaten more than they 
are. — While the food value of a green salad is not 
large, the salts it supplies and its refreshing, appetizing 
qualities make it a most wholesome food. The oil or 
butter used in dressing it furnishes fat in a digestible 
form. The acid vinegar is believed to help digest the 
cellulose. Salads are prepared with little trouble and 
with no expense for fuel. Some vegetable suitable for 
salad can be obtained all the year round, even canned 
ones making, with fresh greens, an acceptable dish. If 
you cannot have salad every day, have it as often as you 
can. Some people now have salad instead of dessert, 
and if you cannot have both at the same dinner, it is 
well to substitute salad for pudding two or three times 
a week, at least. 



256 THEOEY AND PKACTICE OF COOKERY 

Recipes 
Mixed Vegetable or Macedoine Salad (Plate XI) 

Cold cooked peas, carrots, beets, string beans, almost 
any cold vegetables may be combined in this salad. 

Cut beets and carrots in half-inch cubes, string beans 
and celery in short lengths, mix each vegetable sepa- 
rately with French dressing, and arrange them in 
sections, forming a circular mound. Let vegetables 
of contrasting colors come next each other. Garnish 
with radishes, celery tips, lettuce leaves, etc. 

Potato Salad 

Hot boiled potatoes cut into _j4-inch cubes, 3 cupfuls. 
Salad oil, 9 tablespoonfuls. Pepper, }4- teaspoonful. 

Vinegar, 3 teaspoonfuls. Onion, chopped fine, % cupful. 
Salt, 1 teaspoonful. Parsley, cut fine, 1 tablespoonful. 

Mix these ingredients thoroughly, heap the salad on 
a dish, and garnish with radishes, sliced, or cut in rose 
form (§ 394), and sprigs of parsley. 

Cooked Salad Dressing (without oil) 

Mustard, J4 teaspoonful. Sugar, 1 teaspoonful. 

Salt, ^ teaspoonful. Yolk of 1 egg. 

Cayenne, a few grains. Milk, ^ cupful. 

Flour, 2 teaspoonfuls. Butter, melted, 2 teaspoonfuls. 

Hot vinegar, i^ cupful. 

Mix the dry ingredients in a saucepan, stir into them 
the yolk of egg^ butter, and milk. Stir the mixture 



ACID AND SALT SUPPLYING FOODS 257 

over hot water until it begins to thicken, then stir in 
the vinegar, a few drops at a time. When as thick as 
thick cream, strain and cool. 

Cole-slaw 

One-half of a small hard cabbage. 
Cooked salad dressing, hot, 1 cupful. 

Soak the cabbage in cold salt water for thirty minutes, 
shred it fine with a sharp knife or vegetable shredder, 
and mix the dressing with it. Serve cold. 

Mayonnaise Dressing 

Yolk of 1 egg. Cayenne pepper, a few grains, or paprika, X 

Olive oil, 1 cupful, teaspoonful. Mustard, if liked, }4 teaspoonful. 
Salt, j4 teaspoonful. Lemon juice or strong malt or tarragon vine- 
gar, about 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Mix in a bowl or soup-plate with a silver fork. To 
insure success, have bowl, oil, and egg very cold ; and 
add oil very slowl3^ In summer set the bowl in a pan 
of cracked ice while mixing the dressing. 

Break and separate the egg, taking care that no white 
remains with the yolk. Beat the yolk slightly, and stir 
into it the seasonings mixed. Now begin to add the 
oil, a drop at a time at first, beating hard. As it 
thickens, add more rapidly, but never add more until 
that in the bowl has become thoroughly mixed with the 
egg. When too stiff to beat easily, add a little vinegar 
or lemon juice, and continue adding oil and vinegar 
alternately, until all is in. The dressing should hold 



258 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

its shape. More oil and seasonings can be added to one 
yolk to make a larger quantity of dressing. 

Stuffed Tomato Salad 

Medium-sized tomatoes, 8. Mayonnaise dressing, 1 cupful. 

Celery cut in small pieces, Lettuce. 

or 

Cucumber cut in cubes, 2 cupfuls. Salt. 

Scald and peel the tomatoes ; slice off their tops. 
Scrape out the seeds and a little of the pulp, and fill 
the cavities heaping full with celery or cucumber mixed 
with Mayonnaise dressing. Make on a platter, or on 
separate plates, nests of tender lettuce leaves, and put a 
tomato in each nest. 

Chapter XXIII in Food Products of the World tells about salad 
plants. 



CHAPTER IX 

SUGAR AND SWEETS 

Section 1 . Sugar — Candies 

405. Sugar a valuable food. — Sugar is not only a food 
pleasing to the taste, but is one of the best of heat givers 
and force producers. This is why children, naturally 
more active than grown people, are more eager for 
sugar. 

406. Common sense in the use of sugar. — Because sugar 
dissolves readily, small quantities of it are easily digested; 
but if more than a little is taken at once, some of it 
is likely to ferment in the stomach, causing distress, 
and interfering with the digestion of other foods. It 
may ferment in the mouth and make the teeth decay. 

Do not eat sweets just before meals ; they will take 
away your appetite for more substantial food. Use 
sugar sparingly on oatmeal and in beverages ; a little 
tastes as sweet as more to one who has not blunted his 
taste by using too much. Do not be tempted by sweets 
in the bakeshop ; they are bad for teeth, complexion, 
and health. 

407. Where sugar comes from. — There are many kinds 
of sugar, but the kind we usually mean when we speak 
of sugar is made from the juice of the sugar-cane. This 

25U 



260 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

juice also contains gluten, which makes it a better food 
than manufactured sugar is. 

408. The sugar-cane. — The sugar-cane is a tropical 
plant belonging to the family of grasses. It looks like 
corn, but grows sometimes twenty feet high. The stalk 
contains a loose, spongy substance, filled, in the grow- 
ing plant, with sap. About the time that the blossoms 
appear, the sap becomes sweet and rises in the stalks to 
feed the ripening plant. The stickiness of the stalks 
is the sign that the cane is ready to be cut down. 

Sugar Making and Refining 

409. Raw sugar. — The sweet juice obtained by crush- 
ing the cane-stalks between rollers is boiled to a thick 
syrup in large copper vessels. As it slowly cools, part 
of it separates into crystals. The liquid that will not 
crystallize is called molasses. After draining this off, 
raw sugar, a coarse, impure, brown product, is left. 

410. Experiment to illustrate crystallization. — Dissolve in hot 
water as much sugar as it will take up. This makes what is called 
a concentrated solution. Boil this till syrupy. Then hang in it sev- 
eral pieces of worsted, and let it cool slowly. AVhat forms on the 
worsted ? This is the method used in making rock candy. 

411. Experiment with molasses. — Test molasses with red and 
with blue litmus paper. Is it acid or alkaline ? Add to a little of 
the molasses in a test-tube a pinch of baking-soda, and test again. 
What does this test show? What does the foaming of the molasses 
show? (§§ 193 and 197.) 

Soda is used with molasses as it is with sour milk to raise 
batters. — If only a little molasses is called for by the 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 261 

recipe, enough soda must be used to neutralize this, 
and as much baking-powder added as is required to 
make the batter light. 

412. Experiments to illustrate the refining of raw sugar. — A. 

Dissolve some raw sugar in water, and pour it through a fine 
strainer lined with flannel. Which is clearer, the original liquid 
or the filtrate ? 

B. Plug the bottom of a flower pot with a sponge, fill it half 
full of charcoal, and pour through this the filtrate from the 
strainer. What has become of the brown coloring matter? Taste 
the filtrate. Where is the sugar? 

413. How sugar is refined. — In the sugar refineries of 
the United States raw sugar is mixed with hot water, 
treated with lime to neutralize any acid present, and 
then filtered, first through flannel, afterward through a 
bed of charcoal. Next it is boiled in vacuum pans. 
These are covered vessels from which part of the air is 
exhausted. Under this reduced air pressure the sugar 
solution can be evaporated to a thick syrup without 
danger of burning it. (§ 42.) 

414. Trade names of sugars. — Granulated sugar is ob- 
tained from this syrup by putting it into centrifugal 
machines, rapidly revolving cylinders which throw out 
the uncrystallizable part of the syrup, leaving a mass 
of white crystals. 

Cut or block sugar, the purest kind, is made by run- 
ning the syrup into molds, where it hardens. The 
glistening crystalline cones are then sawed into cubes. 
An inferior kind of block sugar is made by pressing 
granulated sugar into cubes. These are more regular 



262 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

in shape than the blocks of sawed sugar, and lack their 
rough surface. Powdered sugar is made by grinding the 
fragments broken off in sawing block sugar. Brown 
sugars are less refined grades. 

415. Other kinds of sugar. — Honey is the purest nat- 
ural form of sugar. Beet sugar is made from the juice 
of the sugar beet. Maple sugar is obtained by simply 
boiling down the sap of the sugar maple until it thick- 
ens, and then cooling it in molds. Grape sugar, or 
glucose, appears as a yellowish, grainy substance on 
raisins and other dried fruits. Commercial glucose is 
manufactured from starch by boiling it with an acid. 
It is not so sweet as cane sugar, but wholesome, and 
even more readily digestible. It is too moist to be 
convenient for household use, but is used largely by 
candy makers. What other kinds of sugar do you 

know of ? 

Candy 

416. Pure candy can be made at home more cheaply 
than it can be bought. Much of the candy sold is made 
of impure sugar and contains coloring matter that is 
unwholesome, and, in some cases, poisonous. 

417. The effect of heat on sugar ; experiment. — Heat a Httle 
sugar in a test-tube, noting the changes in its appearance. Con- 
tinue heating till there is no further change. 

Sugar becomes at 365° F. a clear, colorless liquid, 
barley sugar. At 420°, the sugar turns brown. It is 
now caramel. If heated still further, its oxygen and 
hydrogen gradually pass off as steam, leaving only a 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 263 

lump of black carbon, one-fourth the weight of the 
original sugar. 

418. Boiling sugar to the thread, soft ball, hard ball, and 
crack. — Sugar is heated to different degrees for differ- 
ent kinds of candy. For some, it is boiled till a drop 
let fall from the spoon spins itself into a fine thread ; 
for some, to the " soft ball " stage, when a little dropped 
into water can be rolled into a soft ball between your 
fingers ; for others, till it makes a '' hard ball " in cold 
water. When it becomes brittle upon being dropped 
in water, it is said to be boiled to "the crack." 

Candy Recipes 

Molasses Candy 

Cook two cupfuls of molasses in a buttered iron kettle 
until it forms a hard ball in cold water. Turn out on 
a buttered plate. This may be pulled just before it 
hardens. One tablespoonful of vinegar may be used in 

this candy. 

Butter Taffy 
Brown sugar, 2 cupfuls. 

Water, 6 tablespoon fuls. 

Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Grated cocoanut or chopped nuts, ^ cupful. 

Cook the sugar and water together, stirring, till the 
sugar dissolves. Let this syrup come to the boiling- 
point, then add the butter and cook to the '' soft ball " 
stage (about ten minutes). Add cocoanut or chopped 
nuts. Stir until it thickens, and pour quickly into 
buttered pans. 



264 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Peanut Brittle 
Sugar, 1 cupful. 

Peanuts (shelled and pounded), 1 cupful. 

Put the peanuts on a buttered tin plate and set on 
the back of the stove. Make a caramel of the sugar. 
Stir in the peanuts very quickly, pour it into the pans, 
and spread it thin by slightly tilting them. 

You can read more about sugars in Foods and Beverages, pp. 
215-231, and about preserves and candy, pp. 232-23.5. For an 
experiment in crystallization to try at home, see p. 236 of Early 
Chapters in Science. For directions for making other kinds of 
candy, see The Centunj Cook-hook. 

Section 2. Cakes and Desserts 
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. — Samuel Johnson. 

419. Under the head of " Cakes and Desserts " come 
most of the dishes that contain enough sugar to make 
sweetness their predominant taste. With the sugar 
other ingredients are combined in various ways. 

Cakes and desserts; new applications of familiar principles. 
— Compare the recipe for Egg JNluffins with the recipe 
for Standard Cake in the table below. For convenience 
the former is repeated at the head of the table. Cake, 
you see, is only rich bread, some cakes being richer than 
others, — that is, having more butter, sugar, and eggs in 
proportion to the flour. Which is the richest cake in 
the table ? Which is the plainest ? 

420. Two classes of cakes : butter and sponge cakes. — 
AH cakes belong to one of two classes, butter cakes and 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 265 

cakes without butter, or sponge cakes. Several kinds of 
cake can easily be made from one recipe, by varying the 
flavorings, spices, and fruits, by baking the same mix- 
ture in pans of different shapes, by frosting the cake or 
leaving it plain. 

421. Every one that cooks should understand the 
principles of mixing and raising batters sufficiently to 
know when she reads a new recipe whether or not it 
will turn out well, and whether it is extravagant or 
reasonable. 

422. General rules for the proportions of ingredients in 
cakes. — In general, a cake should contain not more than 
one-third to one-half as much butter as sugar, and 
about half as much liquid as flour. Remember that 
butter, or other shortening, counts as liquid, since it 
melts in the oven. Sour milk and molasses do not thin 
a mixture as much as sweet milk or water. A cake 
with fruit should be a little stiffer than one without. 
One cupful of molasses requires one teaspoonful of soda. 
How much soda is required for one pint of sour milk ? 
(§ 197.) How much baking-poAvder for one cup of 
flour? (§ 201.) The more eggs there are in a cake, the 
less baking-powder is needed. 

423. Compare Standard Cake with 1, 2, 3, 4 Cake. 
How do you account for their having the same quantity 
of milk while the flour in the latter recipe is double 
that in the former ? Why is there less sugar in Spice 
Cake than in 1, 2, 3, 4 cake ? Account for the absence 
of baking-powder in Spice Cake and Gingerbread. Why 



266 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

does Sponge Cake require no baking-powder ? Notice 
some of the other ways in which recipes differ, and 
account for these in as many cases as you can. 

Directions for mixing Cake 

(See Breaking and Beating Eggs, p. 89.) 

Note. — Read "Hints on How to Work," p. 56, "Batters and 
Doughs," p. 106, and " Helpful Hints about Mixing and Baking Quick 
Breads," p. 110. What is said about quick breads applies equally to 
cakes. 

424. How to mix butter cakes. — Cream the butter and 
sugar thoroughly ; unless they become partially lique- 
fied before the other ingredients are added, the cake will 
be coarse grained, perhaps heavy. Add the yolks of the 
eggs, beaten slightly, then a little of the milk, then 
part of the flour with the other dry ingredients sifted 
with it, a little more milk, and so on till all the flour 
and milk are stirred in, taking care to keep the mixture 
always of about the same degree of stiffness. Fold in 
the whites beaten very stiff. Add the flavoring and 
beat the mixture well. If fruit is to be added, fold it 
in, well floured, last of all. 

Compare these directions with those for mixing Egg 
Muffins. What difference do you observe ? For Cot- 
tage Pudding the butter is melted.. Note the propor- 
tion of butter to sugar, and think why this is done. 

425. How to inix sponge cake. — Beat the yolks till 
thick and lemon colored. Beat the sugar into them, 
add the flavoring (and other liquid, if the recipe calls 
for any) . Beat the whites till stiff and dry ; slip them 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 267 

into the mixing-bowl ; sift the flour over them, and fold 
all together. Sponge cake beaten after adding the flour 
will be close and tough. 

426. Mixing molasses cakes. — Mix milk and molasses 
and stir them into the flour. Add soda last, sifted with 
a little of the flour reserved for this purpose. 

427. Fruit must be well floured and added last, or it 
will sink to the bottom of the loaf. To stone raisins, 
cover them with boiling water. When they become 
soft, squeeze out the seeds. Cut citron in thin strips. 

(For the preparation of currants, see § 235.) 

428. Directions for baking. — The baking is the most 
important part of cake making. No matter how skil- 
fully cake is mixed, it will be spoiled if not properly 
baked. 

429. Greasing cake pans. — Grease cake pans well with 
melted butter (§ 189). Sponge-cake tins need not be 
greased ; line them with ungreased paper. 

430. The oven. — The oven should be less hot for 
cake than for bread. It is right for butter cakes 
baked in loaves, if it turns a piece of writing paper 
light brown in five minutes. For small cakes it should 
be hotter. Sponge cake may be baked either in a hot 
oven or in a moderate one, allowing it forty to fifty 
minutes in the latter case. Loaf cake requires about 
one hour. Small cakes and layer cakes, about twenty 
minutes. When cake is done it shrinks from the pan, 
and a broom straw run into it comes out clean. Take 



268 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

it at once from the pan, and set it on a clean towel to 
cool. 

431. The points of good cake. — A good butter cake is 
smooth on top and an even golden-brown all over. It 
should round up slightly in the middle, but not sink 
from the edges and rise sharply with a crack on the 
top. Such a cake either contains too much flour or 
has baked too fast. The inside of the loaf should be 
slightly moist, but not sticky, and of a fine, even grain, 
with no heavy streaks. Coarse-grained cake is usually 
caused by lack of beating or by too slow an oven. 
Sponge cake should rise in the oven, and settle to a 
levels not lower, after being taken out. The top crust 
should be slightly sugary, the texture looser than that 
of butter cake, but tender and velvety. Too much 
flour makes sponge cake tough. 

432. Remarks on the table of cake recipes. — While, for 
convenience, the ingredients for each cake and pudding 
are given separately in the table, it can readily be seen 
that Cottage Pudding is merely a sweet muffin mixture, 
that Suet Pudding is Standard Cake, made with suet 
instead of butter, and molasses instead of sugar ; that 
Spice, Gold, and Silver Cakes are modifications of Cup 
Cake ; and that Whole-wheat Gingersnaps are made by 
varying slightly the recipe for Sugar Cookies. 

Butter or drippings may be used instead of suet ; in 
this case, especially if the pudding is made with water, 
add a little extra flour. 

Light Fruit Cake is made by adding to either Standard 



Special Directions. 



Mix and sift fioiir, baking-powder, and salt. Stir into 
them the inilk, beaten egg, and the butter, melted. 
Last, fold in the beaten white. 

Beat the yolk ; beat into it the sugar ; stir in the milk, 
and the flour, sifted with the salt and baking- 
powder. Last, fold in the white, beaten stiff. 



Free the suet from membrane, chop it fine, and mix it 

with the milk and molasses before stirring them into 

'the dry ingredients. Steam in a greased pudding 

mold for 3 hours. Fruit may be'omitted. Serve 

with Hard Sauce. 



This recipe makes two loaves. 



Mix like any butter cake, adding the molasses to the 
butter and sugar. Remember to add soda last. 



Make Gold and Silver cake at the same time, to use 
both parts of the eggs. 



Mix like butter cakes. When stiff enough to roll, turn 
out on a floured board, and roll out, part at a time, 
one-fourth of an inch thick. Keep board and pin 
well floured. Bake 15 minutes on shallow pans. 



Roll as thin as possible. 



TABLE GIVING PROPORTIONS OF INGREDIENTS FOR CAKES AND BATTER PUDDINGS 



Name. 


SlIORTKNING. 


Sweetening. 


Eggs. 


Liquid. 


Leavening 
Material. 


Floite. 


Flavoring. Seasoning. 
Spice. 




i 
j 


Butter. 


Suet. 


Sugar. 


Molasses. 


Whites. 


Yolks. 


Milk. 


W.ater. 


Baking- 
l)Owder. 


Baking- 
soda. 


1 


Egg Muffins. 


Itb. 








1 


1 


%c. 




2t. 




IV2C. 


Salt, % t. 




j Mix and sift tlour, baking-poM-der, and salt. Stir into 
them the milk, beaten egg, and the butter, melted. 
Last, fold in the beaten while. 


Cottage pudding. 


'Jtb. 




V-i. c. 




1 


1 


%c. 




2 t. 




11/2 c. 


Salt, V4t. 




Beat the yolk ; beat into it the sugar ; stir in the milk, 
and the Hour, sifted with the salt and baking- 
powder. Last, fold in the white, beaten stiff. 


Standard Cakk. 


V4C. 




%c. 




2 


2 


V2C. 




11/2 t 




IV2 c. 


Vanilla, ^ t. 


'1 


Suet pudding, 




Suet 




Vac. 






V2 c. or 


¥20. 




Vat. 


11/2 c. 


Cinnamon, Vz t. 
Allspice, V4t. 
Salt, 1/4 1. 


Stoiied and chopped , Free the suet from membrane, chop it fine, and mix it 

raisins and currants,, with the milk and molasses before stirring them into 

mixed, Yi c. 'the dry ingredients. Steam in a greased pudding 

1 mold for 3 hours. Fruit may be omitted. Serve 

with Hard Sauce. 


Gingerbread. 


2tb. 
nclted. 






%C. 


1 


1 


Va c. sour. 






It. 


2 c. 


Ginger, 1 tb. 


! 
1 


Cup Cakic, ok 1, 2, 
3-, 4 Cakr. 


1 c. si;. 




2 c. 




4 


4 


V2C. 




3t. 




3 c. 


Vanilla, 1 t., or grated 
nutmeg, Yz t. 




This recipe makes two loaves. 


Spice calce. 


1 c. sc. 




1 c. brown. 


1/4 c. 


3 


3 




%c. 




V4t. 


3c. 


Cinnamon, 1 t. 
Allspice, clove, and 
nutmeg, mixed, 1 t. 


Raisins, Yz c. 
Currants, "A c. 
Citron , V4 c. 


Mix like any butter cake, adding the molasses to the 
butter and sugar. Remember to add soda last. 


Gold calce. 


VaC.sc. 




IV4 c. 






4 


Vac. 




2t. 




2 c. 


Grated nutmeg, Vi t. 




Make Gold and Silver cake at the same time, to use 
both i)arts of the eggs. 


Silver cake. 


Vac.sc. 




IV4 c. 




4 




y2C. 




2 t. 




2 c. 


Almond extract, i^t. 

Juice and grated rind 
of half a lemon. 

Salt, V4 1. 






Si'ONGifi Cakk. 






lV4C.powd. 
or gran. 




5 


5 










IV4 c. 






Baking-powder 
spongo cake. 






1% c. 




3 


3 




^c. 


2t. 




P/4C. 


Salt, 14 t. 
Lemon extract, Vz t. 






Sugar Cookiiss. 


Vi c. 




Ic. 




1 


1 


V4C. 




2t. 




Enough to 
roll out, 
about 3 c. 


A sprinkling of nut- 
meg after cookies 
are cut. 




Mix like butter cakes. When stiff enough to roll, turn 
out on a floured board, and roll out, part at a time 
one-fourth of an inch thick. Keep board and pin 
well floured. Bake L-j minutes on shallow pans. 


Whole-wheat ginger 
snaps. 


Vac. 




Ic. 


2 lb. 


1 


1 


'^/4t;. 




It. 


V4t. 1 ^Ybole-wlleat 
Flour, 
about 3 c. 


Ginger, 1 tb. 




Roll as thin as possible. 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 269 

or Cup Cake half a cup of raidns and one fourth cup each 
of currants and citron. 

Chocolate Layer Cake. — Bake Standard Cake in three 
jelly-cake tins, and spread chocolate frosting on top 
and between the layers. 

Plain Spice Cake is made by omitting ginger from the 
gingerbread recipe, and adding spice as in Spice Cake. 

Coffee Cake. — Use coffee instead of water in Spice 
Cake. 

Points to be remembered in Cake-making 

433. 1. Use only the best materials, — fresh eggs, 
fine granulated sugar, good butter. Otherwise the cake 
will not pay for the trouble of making it.^ 

2. If you cannot get fine sugar, sift what you have. 
Sponge cake is better for having both flour and sugar 
sifted separately several times. 

3. See that the fire is so arranged that the oven will 
be ready when the cake is mixed. 

4. If very little butter is used, melt it and add it to 
the sugar, or to the sugar and eggs. In cold weather 
warm the bowl slightly with hot water before creaming 
butter. A teaspoonful or two of milk may be added to 
the butter and sugar, if they are very slow to cream. 

5. Cake containing molasses burns easily. Bake such 
cake and any thick loaves requiring long baking in tins 
lined with greased paper. 

1 Pastry flour makes the tenderest cake, but bread flour gives satis- 
factory results. If you substitute bread flour for pastry flour in a 
recipe calling for the latter, use but seven-eighths of the measure 
given. 



270 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

6. If cake browns within fifteen minutes after it is 
put into the oven, the heat is too great. Reduce it, or 
make a tent of brown paper over the pan, shaped like 
this J L- A pan of water put into the oven will reduce 
the heat. Explain why. 

Recipes for Cake Frostings and Fillings 

Quick Frosting (Boston School Kitchen Text-book) 

Powdered sugar, 1 cupful. 
Boiling water, 1 tablespoonful. 
Lemon juice, 1 tablespoonful. 

Mix these ingredients, and add more boiling water, 
a few drops at a time, till the sugar settles when you 
cease stirring. Spread on cake while the latter is hot. 

Soft Frosting 

Granulated sugar, }4 cupful. Water, X cupful. 

White of 1 egg. Lemon juice, 1)4 teaspoonfuls. 

Lemon extract, }4 teaspoonful. 

Stir the sugar and water in a saucepan till the syrup 
boils, then boil it without stirring till it threads (§ 418). 
A little before it reaches this point, beat the white-of- 
egg stiff. When the syrup threads, turn it into the 
egg in a fine stream, beating till smooth, but not thick 
enough to drop. Flavor, and pour over cake, spread- 
ing with a knife. If beaten too long, thin with a few 
drops of lemon juice or boiling water, and wet the knife 
in cold water. 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 271 

Chocolate Icing or Filling 

Granulated sugar, 1 cupful. Unsweetened chocolate, 1 ounce. 

Water, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Scrape the chocolate fine, mix it with the sugar and 
water, and simmer about twenty minutes, or till thick 
enough to spread. Spread while hot on the cake. 

Recipes for Pudding Sauces 

Lemon Sauce 

Sugar (brown or white), Yz cupful. 

Boiling water, 1 cupful. 

Cornstarch, 1 tablespoonful. 

Butter, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Lemon juice, 1 tablespoonful. 

Mix the sugar and cornstarch, stir into them the boil- 
ing water, and boil five minutes. Take from the fire, 
and add butter and lemon juice. 

Variations 

1. Boil the thinly shaved rind of half a lemon in the 
water, straining it out before adding the water to the 
sugar and cornstarch. 

2. Add one well-beaten Qgg after taking the sauce 
from the fire. 

A fruit sauce may be made by thickening the syrup 
from canned fruit with cornstarch. If no more sugar 
is required, how will you keep the cornstarch from 
lumping ? 



272 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Hard Sauce 

Butter, }( cupful. White of 1 egg. 

Powdered sugar, 1 cupful. Vanilla extract, 1 teaspoonful. 

Grated nutmeg, y^ teaspoonful, or >^ of a nutmeg. 

Cream butter and sugar, add the white-of-egg un- 
beaten, and the vanilla, and beat together thoroughly. 
Heap roughly in a small, glass dish, grate nutmeg over 
the top, and keep cool until served. 

DESSERTS 

434. The making of elaborate desserts, except for 
special occasions, is a waste of time. A rich pudding 
is unsuitable after a hearty dinner ; fruit is the best 
dessert after such a meal. Jellies, custards, creams, and 
combinations of these with fruit, when a part of the 
meal and not eaten to please the taste after hunger is 
satisfied, are desirable and wholesome. 

435. Remarks about the desserts for which recipes are 
given. — Some dessert dishes have been given under 
other headings. Caramel Custard is a variation of Cup 
Custards (p. 91). Bread Puddings are baked custards 
thickened with bread crumbs. They should be soft, 
like custard. In making soft custard, use the same 
care that you have in making sauces thickened with 
eggs. In using tapioca ^ or cornstarch, see that the 
starch is thoroughly swollen and cooked. What other 
reason is there for cooking it thoroughly ? Starch 

1 Tapioca is manufactured from the root of manioc^ a tropical tree. 
It is almost pure starch. 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 273 

mixtures stiffen in cooking ; if to be molded, take care 
not to have them more than just stiff enough to hold 
their shape when cold. 

Caramel Custard 

^S'g^* ^' Extract of vanilla, }4 teaspoonful. 

Sugar, 1}4 tablespoonfuls. Scalded milk, 1 pint. 

Sugar for caramel, 1 cupful. Water, 1 tablespoonful. 

Melt sugar for caramel, stirring it constantly until 
light brown in color. Reserve one-half of it. Butter 
custard cups and pour a little caramel into each ; tip 
the cups so as to coat them with it. 

After beating the eggs slightly, beat in the sugar, 
stir in the milk and vanilla, and fill the cups nearly 
full. Bake like cup custards, and when cold turn them 
out, one on each serving plate. Serve with cold Cara- 
mel Sauce. 

To make caramel sauce, add to the caramel reserved half 
a cup of boiling ^ water, and keep it hot till the caramel 
dissolves. 

Bread-pudding Recipes 
Plain Bread Pudding 

Scalded milk, 1 quart. Stale bread crumbs without crust, 

Sugar, yi cupful. grated or rubbed, 2 cupfuls. 

Eggs, 2. or 

Salt, X teaspoonful. Dried crumbs, 1 cupful. 

Beat the eggs slightly; beat into them the sugar 
and add the milk, spice, and salt. When the crumbs 

1 If the water is not very hot when poured in, the caramel will 

spatter. 



274 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

become soft, turn into a buttered dish, and bake until 
a knife inserted in the padding comes out clean. 

Variations of Bread Pudding. — 1. Add one cupful of 
boiled raisins^ citron^ and currants mixed. 

2. Separate the eggs, add only the yolks to the 
pudding. Beat the whites stiff ; beat into them two 
and a half tahlespoonfuls of powdered sugar, spread 
them roughly over the pudding, and return it to the 
oven for two minutes, or till a delicate brown. , 

3. ftueen of puddings. — Like variation 2, except omit 
spice, flavor with one and a half tahlespoonfuls of 
lemon juice and spread it over with jam or jelly before 
covering it with meringue. 

Plain Soft Custard 

Scalded milk, 2 cupfuls. Sugar, 6 tablespoonfuls. 

Egg-yolks,i 3. Salt, }i teaspoonful. 

Vanilla, Yz teaspoonful. 

Beat the eggs slightly, beat into them the sugar, 
and salt, and stir in slowly the hot milk. Pour into 
a double boiler, and cook, stirring constantly, until the 
custard is thick enough to coat the spoon. Strain at 
once through a fine strainer into a cold pitcher. When 
cool stir in the vanilla, and pour into a glass dish or 
glass custard cups for serving. 

If the custard cooks a moment too long, it will curdle. 

1 AVhole eggs may be used, but they do not make so smooth a 
custard. When eggs are expensive, two yolks may be used instead 
of three, half a tablespoonful of cornstarch mixed with a tablespoon- 
ful of cold milk being stirred into the rest of the milk, and scalded 
with it. 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 275 

It is safer to take it from the fire before you think it 
quite done, as the heat of the boiler cooks it even while 
it is being turned out. If it begins to curdle, set the 
upper part of the boiler immediately into a pan of cold 
water, and beat the custard energetically with a Dover 
egg-beater till smooth. 

Apple Tapioca 
Pearl or granulated tapioca, 4 tablespoonf uls. 



Tart apples, 


6. 


Boiling water, 


1 pint. 


Sugar, 


Yz cupful. 


Cinnamon or nutmeg. 


X teaspoonful. 


Salt, 


a few grains. 



Soak the tapioca over night in one cupful of cold 
water. Core and pare the apples, slice one of them, 
and cook it with the tapioca in the boiling water till 
the latter is translucent. Place the rest of the apples 
upright in a buttered baking-dish, sprinkle over them 
the sugar and spice, pour over them the tapioca mix- 
ture, and bake till they are tender. Serve with sugar 

and cream. 

Cornstarch Meringue 

Milk, 1 quart. Granulated sugar, X cupful. 

Cornstarch, ^ cupful. Vanilla extract, 1 teaspoonful. 

Eggs, 3. Powdered sugar, 6 tablespoonfuls. 

Scald the milk in a double boiler, and stir into it 
the cornstarch just moistened with cold water. Cook 
directly over the heat till it comes to the boiling-point ; 
then remove at once. Separate the eggs ; beat the 
yolks slightly by themselves, then with the granulated 



276 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

sugar ; stir these into the thickened milk, cook all 
together for one minute, add the vanilla, and pour into 
a baking-dish. 

For the meringue. — Beat the whites till frothy, add 
the powdered sugar, and beat again. When stiff enough 
to hold its shape, spread the meringue over the pud- 
ding, neaping it in the middle, sprinkle with poAvdered 
sugar, and brown slightly in a warm oven. Serve 
cold. 

Creamy Rice Pudding 

Milk, 1 quart. Sugar, y^ cupful. 

Rice, Yz cupful. Grated nutmeg, a few grains. 

Salt, % teaspoonful. 

Wash the rice. (§ 138.) Mix the ingredients in 
a pudding-dish and bake for three or four hours, stir- 
ring in the brown crust as it forms. Or cook slowly 
for a shorter time in a saucepan on the stove, stirring 
often. Serve cold. 

Half a cupful of raisins may be added to this recipe. 

Section 3. Ice-cream and Water-ices 

The daintiest last to make the end most sweet. — Shakespeare. 

436. In summer no other dessert is so welcome as 
ice-cream. With bread and butter, it is a sufficient 
lunch on a hot day. 

437. Ice and salt form a freezing mixture. — When 
ice and salt are mixed, a double action takes place : the 
salt makes the ice melt, and the melting ice dissolves 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 277 

the salt. We have already observed that heat is used 
up in changing matter from the solid to the liquid 
form (§§ 48 and 100). Melting ice and salt reach a tem- 
perature below the freezing-point of water. If we pack 
them around some other liquid, they draw the heat 
from it so fast that it freezes. This is why we use a 
mixture of salt and ice to freeze ice-cream. 

Experiment. — Fill a cup with cracked ice ; take the tempera- 
ture of the ice with a thermometer. How cold is the ice ? Mix 
four tablespoonfuls of rock-salt with the ice, and watch the ther- 
mometer. When the mercury stops falling, see what degree of 
cold it registers. 

Directions for freezing Cream 

438. Making ready. — Put the ice into a strong can- 
vas bag, or wrap it in a piece of stout cloth, and pound 
it fine. Use rock-salt ; fine salt will not do. Scald 
can, dasher, and cover. Fit the can into the socket in 
the pail, pour in the mixture to be frozen, put on the 
cover, adjust the cover to the cross-piece, and turn the 
crank to make sure that all is in working order. 

439. Packing. — Fill the space between the can and 
the pail with alternate layers of ice and salt, putting in 
three measures of ice, then one of salt. The ice and 
salt should come a little above the height at which the 
cream will stand in the can. As the mixture expands 
in freezing, fill the can not more than three-fourtlis full. 
Pack ice and salt solidly, turning the crank a few times 
to let the mixture settle. 



278 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

440. Freezing. — Turn tlie crank slowly and steadily 
until the cream is rather stiff, then turn more rapidly. 
Do not draw off the water unless it stands so high that 
there is danger of its getting into the can. The cream 
should take about twenty minutes to freeze ; cream 
frozen too rapidly, or not well stirred, is coarse- 
grained. 

When the dasher turns very hard, the cream is suffi- 
ciently frozen. Remove the dasher, wipe the outside of 
the cover and the upper part of the can (to avoid letting 
in any salt water), and take off the cover. Scrape the 
cream from the sides of the can, and pack it down level. 
Put a cork into the hole in the cover, and replace it. 
Draw off the salt water through the hole near the bot- 
tom of the pail, repack with ice and salt, and cover 
with an old blanket or a piece of carpet. Let the cream 
stand in the freezer at least one hour, two, if possible, 
to " ripen " before serving. This greatly improi^es its 
flavor. 

441. Water-ices. — Freeze water-ices like cream, except 
that the crank need not be turned constantly. A few 
turns every five minutes is enough. 

442. How to make ice-cream without a freezer. — Ice- 
cream can be made in a tin pail packed in a wooden 
pail. Whirl the pail round by its handle, taking off the 
cover occasionally to scrape down and beat the cream. 
A small quantity can be made in a baking-powder can 
set into a pail or saucepan. Before using the can, fill 
it with water to see if it leaks. Most cans require 



SUGAR AND SWEETS 279 

soldering. A tinman will do it cheaply, or you can get 
a stick of solder and do it yourself. 

Recipes 

Plain Ice-cream 

By varying the flavor this cream may be used as the 
foundation for any kind of ice-cream. It may be made 
with three eggs and no cream, but even half a cupful 
of cream is a great improvement. 

Milk, 1 pint. Flour, 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Sugar, 1 cupful. Cream, 1 pint. 

Eggs, 2. 

Scald the milk, mix the sugar, flour, and eggs to- 
gether, and make a custard according to the directions 
for making Soft Custard (p. 274). When cold, stir 
the cream into it, and freeze. 

Flavorings. — Vanilla Cream. Add one tablespoonf ul of 
vanilla, just before freezing. Chocolate Ice-cream. — Add 
four ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted. Straw- 
berry Ice-cream. — Add one box of berries, crushed. 
Peach Ice-cream. — Add one quart of peaches, pared and 
mashed. 

Lemon Ice 

Lemons, 4 large ones. Sugar, 1% pounds. 

Oranges, 1. Water, 1 quart. 

Make a syrup of the sugar and water by boiling them 
together five minutes. Add the grated rind of the 
orange and of one lemon. Add the juice of the orange 
and lemons. When the syrup is cool, strain and freeze. 



CHAPTER X 
THE PRESERVATION OP POOD 

Section 1. The Spoiling of Pood: What Bacteria 
have to do with it 

Vast hordes of tiny toilers are working in our service night and 
day to keep the world wholesome and all the races of beings supplied 
with life-stuff. — T. M. Prudden. 

443. Microscopic plants. — We have learned that 
mold is a tiny plant, and that yeast and bacteria 
belong to plant families related to it (pp. 32, 33). 
Bacteria, we have found, may do us harm. What pre- 
cautions have we used to keep them, so far as is pos- 
sible, out of our houses, and particularly, out of our 
food and drinking-water ? 

It is a mistake, however, to think all bacteria harm- 
ful. 

A Study of Bacteria 

444. Experiment in growing bacteria. — Expose a little clear, 
cool soup-stock to the air for a few minutes ; then cover it with a 
piece of clean glass, set it aside in a rather warm place, and look 
at it every day. What happens to it ? How does it smell after a 
few days ? What do we say has happened to it? 

445. Microscopic examination. — A. Examine under a micro- 
scope a speck from one of the cloudy spots on the soup-stock, or 
any other spoiled food. What is it made up of ? 

280 



THE PRESERVATION OF FOOD 



281 



B. Examine from time to time a drop from a glass of water 
allowed to stand undisturbed. The drop is crowded with little 
living things. Can you pick out some shaped like lead-pencils, 
others like eggs or billiard-balls, and still others like corkscrews ? 
Make sketches of them. 



446. Bacteria compared with yeast. — Bacteria are 
single-celled forms of plant-life, like yeast; and, like it, 
^^,_^^_,^^ they multiply when 






they have warmth 
and food and mois- 
ture. They exist in 



QD 



%: 



o 
oo 



cPOo 




Fig. 15. — Shapes and groupings of differ- 
ent kinds of bacteria (much enlarged). 



Fig. 16. — Bacteria caus- 
ing typhoid fever, as 
seen under the micro- 
scope. 



far greater numbers than yeasts do, however, swarming 
in the air, in water, in the ground under our feet. One 
kind is so small that fifteen hundred in a row would 
hardly reach across the head of a pin. 



447. The life-history of bacteria. — Bacteria multiply 
by dividing themselves in two, repeating this process 



282 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

so frequently that were there food and room enough 
for them all, the world would soon be crowded with 
bacteria. But there is no danger of this coming to 
pass ; for they die by millions constantly, one kind 
preying upon another, while all kinds are destroyed by 
the occurrence of conditions unfavorable to life. Cold 
checks their activity and growtli ; the temperature of 
boiling water, sometimes a lower temperature, kills 
them. Dry heat is not so fatal to them as moist heat. 
They have a way, when food and water are scarce, of 
entering upon a '' resting-stage." This corresponds, in 
a way, to the "going to seed" of bigger plants when 
winter comes on. The lively, growing bacteria dis- 
appear, but not till after they have produced spores, as 
yeast does when it gets old (§ 225). These little 
spores are hard to kill ; they seem able to last forever, 
ready to spring into life when right conditions return. 

448. Fermentation and putrefaction. — The life-history 
of bacteria closely resembles that of yeast. Let us 
compare the action of yeast upon sugar with the action 
of bacteria upon soup-stock. The first is fermentation, 
the second putrefaction. In both cases organic matter 
is split into something simpler, but fermentation im- 
proves the flavor of the dough, and produces carbon 
dioxide to make it porous, while putrefaction spoils 
good food, and generates unpleasant-smelling gases. 
Some bacteria cause undesirable fermentation ; for 
example, that which takes place in fruit improperly 
canned. 



THE PRESERVATION OF FOOD 283 

449. Death and decay are necessary to life. — On first 
thoughts the work of bacteria, particularly the bacteria 
of putrefaction, does not compare favorably with the 
work done by yeast. But if there were no decay, the 
surface of the earth would become loaded with dead 
matter in useless form, and after a time no plants 
would grow because the earth would have no food for 
them. You see now that we could not live Avithout 
bacteria. These " tiny toilers " feed upon what has 
been called the " broken-down remnants of things once 
alive," reducing them, finally, to inorganic substances 
suitable to be taken up by plants and again made 
into living matter. Thus bacteria form an invisible 
link between us and the dust; a link essential to the 
continuance of life on the globe. 

450. Ways of preserving food; preservatives. — Condi- 
tions favorable to the growth of yeast being, in general, 
favorable to the growth of bacteria, a simple rule to 
keep the latter from troubling us is to treat them in 
just the opposite way from that we took to make yeast 
thrive and grow. That is to say, keep food cold, or 
dry it, or cook it. Cooking is effective for a time only, 
unless the food cooked be immediately sealed up so 
that no other bacteria can reach it. A fourth way of 
preserving food is to add a disinfectant (§ 59) to it 
if it is liquid, or to coat it with a disinfectant if it is 
solid. 

Disinfectants used on food are called preservatives. 
Preservatives injurious to health are often used in can- 



284 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

ning factories and by dealers in meat, milk, and other 
food. 

The process of destroying bacterial life is called ster- 
ilization, and anything that has undergone this process 
is said to be sterilized. 

Salt has a preservative effect on food, as has sugar, 
when used in large quantities. 

Dr. T. Mitchell Prudden has -written three interesting little 
books about bacteria : The Story of the Bacteria, Dust and Its 
Dangers, and Drinking-ivater and Ice Supplies. The last is perhaps 
the simplest. 

" The Bacteriology of Household Preserving," American Kitchen 
Magazine, September, 1898, is practical and helpful. 

Section 2. Canning and Jelly-making 

451. We do well to take a lesson from the bees, and 
in the long summer days to store up food for the win- 
ter. If we can kill the bacteria in food, and then seal 
it up so that no more can get in, it will keep indefi- 
nitely. This we do in canning. 

CANNING 

452. Can each kind of fruit in its season, when it is 
best and cheapest. Select it under-ripe rather than 
over-ripe. To insure success in preserving it observe 
carefully the following directions : — 

453. Preparing the jars. — For a small family use 
pint jars. Buy jars with tight-fitting covers, and fit 
them each year with new rubber rings. Old rubber 



PLATE XIT. 



HI 


^^^^^^^^^^Mk^^^w "^ 


i 


^HIME~ — 9^"^ '^^^■ik 




IS^^^'^^^^^^^^^^B/im 



Filling Fruit-jars. 




Scales Jars Jelly-bag Measures 

Jelly-tuinblcr Siuicepan, with perforated wooden mat to stand 

Cover and ring jars upob 

Strainer Skimmer Funnel Paraffin 

Silver spoon 
"Wooden spoon 

Utensils used in Canning and Jelly-making. 



THE PRESERVATION OF FOOD 285 

becomes porous, and lets in air. Fit each jar with 
a ring and a cover ; pour water into them, and invert 
them to see if they are air-tight. If not, do not use 
them. Sterilize jars and covers by placing them in a 
dishpan of cold water and letting this slowly come to 
the boiling-point, and boil fifteen minutes. 

454. Preparing and cooking the fruit; strawberries. — 
Wash and hull the berries ; weigh them, and add one- 
third of a pound of sugar for every pound of fruit. 
Let them stand for forty-five minutes or longer. Cook 
the berries slowly until the juice is thick and syrupy, 
and the berries soft. Remove scum as it rises. 

455. Peaches. — Pare the peaches, dropping them into 
cold water. Why not leave them in the air ? Make a 
syrup, allowing two cups of water and one pound of 
sugar to three pounds of peaches ; boil it fifteen min- 
utes. Cut peaches into two, stone them, and put 
peaches and stones into the syrup. The flavor of 
peaches is improved by cooking the stones with them. 
Cook the fruit until, when tried with a knitting needle, 
it is found to be soft. 

Pears, cherries, apples, and plums may be canned like 
peaches. 

456. General directions for filling jars. — Remove the 
jars from the boiling water, and stand them on a cloth 
wet in boiling water. What would happen to the jar 
if set while hot on a cold table ? Place a silver spoon 
in the jar to be filled first. Silver, being a good con- 



286 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

ductor of heat, absorbs heat from the fruit, thus further 
lessening the risk of the jar's breaking. Dip a rubber 
ring into boiling water (to sterilize it), and place it on 
the jar. Dip a silver spoon into boiling water, and 
with it fill the jar with fruit ; then fill the jar to over- 
flowing with syrup. With the handle of the spoon 
press the fruit away from the side of the jar, that any 
air-bubbles between may escape. Put on the cover, 
and screw it tight. Turn the jar upside down ; if 
syrup oozes out, remove cover and rubber, put on an- 
other rubber, refill with boiling syrup, and again screw 
down the cover. The jars must be sealed air-tight. 

Directions for Canning Tomatoes 

Select small, round, smooth tomatoes : scald and peel 
them. Pack them in sterilized jars and fill the jars with 
boiling water. Sterilize the covers and put them on 
without screwing down. Set the jars on small blocks 
of wood in a kettle of cold water, and let the water heat 
slowly for fifteen minutes. Remove the covers, fill the 
jars to overflowing with boiling water, put on the 
rubber rings, and screw the covers down. 

JELLY-MAKING 

457. Before the principles of sterilizing were under- 
stood, fruit was preserved by cooking it with its weight of 
sugar. Only jellies are commonly done in this way now. 

458. Pectin. — The juice of fruits that contain con- 
siderable pectin can be made into jelly. Pectin, although 



THE PRESERVATION OF FOOD 287 

a carbohydrate, in some ways resembles gelatin. It dis- 
solves in boiling water, and stiffens on cooling. It is 
most abundant in the harder parts of the fruit, the core 
and skin. From what animal tissues is gelatin obtained ? 
Apples, quinces, crab apples, currants, and grapes make 
the h est jellies. 

General Directions for making Jelly 

459. Wash the fruit, and remove stems and imper- 
fections. Cut large fruit into pieces. With watery 
fruits, such as grapes and currants, use no water. With 
apples and quinces use enough water to cover them. 
Cook the fruit until the juice flows, crushing it with a 
spoon. Remove it from the fire and strain it through 
a pointed bag hung from the ceiling or between two 
chairs. Do not squeeze the bag at first ; when nearly 
all has strained through, the bag may be squeezed. Keep 
this last juice by itself ; the jelly made from it will not 
be clear, but can be used for jelly-cake, etc. Measure 
the juice, and put an equal quantity of sugar in the 
oven to heat. Boil the juice until the jelly thickens 
slightly when dropped on a cold plate. Pour into 
sterilized jelly glasses, and set aside to harden. 

For quince jelly, cut quinces into quarters without 
paring or coring, cover with water, and cook until soft. 
Strain, and proceed according to General Directions for 
Making Jelly. 

460. Jelly must be covered to protect it from mold. 
Paraffin is convenient for this purpose. 



288 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

To cover jelly with paraffin. — Melt the paraffin in a 
saucepan and pour it over the jelly to the depth of 
about one-eighth of an inch. If, on cooling, any bubbles 
form, exposing the surface of the jelly, add another coat 
of paraffin. 

Helpful Hints about Canning and Jelly- 
making 

461. 1. Use an enamelled- ware saucepan, and a 
wooden spoon. Why ? 

2. Use the best granulated sugar obtainable ; avoid 
any on which a bluish scum forms in boiling. 

3. After filling fruit- jars, let them stand upside 
down over night. In the morning, screw the tops down 
as tightly as possible, wipe the jars carefully, label them, 
and put them away in a cool, dark place. 

4. Fruit that is unusually watery, as it is likely to 
be just after a rain, may not make good jelly. In order 
to evaporate the surplus water, the juice has to be 
cooked so long that the pectin becomes sticky. 

5. Before using the jelly-bag sterilize it by dipping 
it in boiling water. 



CHAPTER XI 



SPECIAL DIETS 



Section 1. Diet for Babies — Special Preparations of 

Milk 

Child-building is an art. — Anna Virginia Miller. 

462. Nature's food for a baby, its mother's milk, is 
the best food it can have. It is as perfectly adapted for 
the baby as cow's milk is for the calf, the egg for the 
unhatched chick, and the seed for the seedling. 

463. Difference between cow's milk and "mother's" 
milk. — The food next best to this is that most nearly 
like it. Cow's milk has about the same percentage 
of water as woman's milk ; but it has more proteid 
and mineral matter, a little less fat, and not nearly so 
much sugar. 1 It is also thicker than the latter, and 

1 AVERAGE COMPOSITION OF COW'S MILK AND 
WOMAN'S MILK 





Water 


Fat 


Sugar 


Proteids 


Mineral 
Matter 


Cow's milk . . 
Woman's milk 


87.50 
87.30 


3.50 
4.00 


4.30 
7.00 


4.00 
1.50 


.70 

.20 



289 



290 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

slightly acid when delivered, while a woman's milk is 
always alkaline. 

464. Modified milk. — By diluting cow's milk with 
Avater to reduce the proportion of proteids, and adding 
cream and milk sugar, a compound similar to the baby's 
natural food is produced. There seem to be properties 
in the latter that cannot be produced by mixing one lot 
of milk with cream from another lot, and sugar prepared 
from a third. This modified milk is, nevertheless, the 
best food for bottle feeding. It is prepared according 
to exact recipes, or formulas, different formulas being 
used for babies of different ages. The following table ^ 
gives the three most commonly used. The first is 
intended for a baby from three to seven days old, the 
second for one between one and three months old, the 
third for one six to nine months old. 



Ingredients. 


QUANTITIES. 






2 


3 


Milk 


1| OZ. 


2 oz. 


8 oz. 


Cream 


21 oz. 


4 oz. 


4 oz. 


Water 


20 oz. 


18 oz. 


12 oz. 


Milk sugar . . . 


1| oz. or 3 tb. 


1^ oz. or 3 tb. 


1| oz. or 3 tb. 



1 These formulas are from The Diseases of Infancy and Childhood^ 
by L. Emmett Holt, M.D. 



SPECIAL DIETS 291 

Usually lime-water or baking-soda is added. Each 
recipe makes about twenty-five ounces. As all babies, 
even of the same age, do not require exactly the same 
food, the physician usually directs its preparation. 

465. Directions for preparing modified milk. — Dissolve 
the milk sugar in the water, which should be boiling 
hot. Filter this through cotton, add the milk and 
cream, and the lime-water or baking-soda. A measur- 
ing-glass on which the ounces are marked is used for 
measuring. Mix in a pitcher, and if the milk does not 
require heating, divide it into as many bottles as the 
baby has meals in a day. 

466. Pasteurizing. — Most milk requires heating to 
render harmless the germs it contains. To sterilize it 
completely, it would have to be boiled for one hour and 
a half. But milk treated in this way does not agree 
with or nourish children as well as fresh milk. Pasteur- 
izing, a process named after the famous French bacteri- 
ologist, Pasteur, is preferable. Pasteurizing consists 
in keeping the milk for fifteen or twenty minutes at a 
temperature of 160° to 170° F. This kills all active bac- 
teria, and destroys the spores of tuberculosis (consump- 
tion), typhoid fever, diphtheria, cholera, and all fever- 
producing germs. Pasteurized milk may keep sweet 
and good for several days, but it is best to prepare every 
morning the quantity needed for the day. 

Home-made pasteurizers. — A convenient pasteurizing 
apparatus can be bought, but a large kettle, one dish- 
pan covered by another, or even a wash-boiler will do. 



292 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 



There must be some sort of a frame or rack to hold the 
bottles. A home-made pasteurizer is shown in the illus- 
tration (Plate XI, facing p. 254). This consists of a 
covered pail and a tin plate with holes cut in it to fit 
the bottles. The plate is placed bottom up on blocks 
in the pail. 

467. Right and wrong sorts of bottles. — A feeding-bottle 

should have a rounded bottom and a rubber tip fitted to 

its neck. Cylindrical bot- 
tles holding eight ounces 
and having the ounces 
marked in the glass are 
best. If bottles with flat 
bottoms are used, there is 




Feeding-bottles, correct shapes ; 
bottle-cleaner. 



Improper style of feeding-bot- 
tle, showing tip collapsed. 



danger that they will be allowed to stand with milk in 
them. Tips should be so made that they will not col- 
lapse. The hole should be large enough to let the milk 
drop rapidly, but not run in a stream when the bottle 
is held upside down. Never use a tube. It cannot be 
kept clean, and the sour milk that collects in it is poi- 
son to a baby. (Fig. 17.) 



SPECIAL DIETS 293 

468. Care of bottles and tips. — Before using new 
bottles, wash them thoroughly with cold water and 
fill them with a solution of baking-soda (one teaspoon- 
ful of soda to one pint of water). Let them stand 
awhile, then rinse them with boiling water, and boil 
them for fifteen minutes to sterilize them. Let them 
cool slowly in the water. On taking them out plug 
them tightly with wads of cotton that have been steril- 
ized by baking in the oven for an hour. Do not take 
out the cotton till milk is to be put in. Clean, sterilize, 
and plug the bottles after every feeding. 

469. Directions for pasteurizing milk. — Pour water 
into the bottom of the can or pail holding the bottles. 
It must not be deep enough to touch them. The steam 
surrounding the bottles heats them. Let the water boil 
for twenty minutes, then take the bottles out, and cool 
them quickly by setting them into a pail of cold water. 

470. Cleanliness of milk and milk utensils. — Milk for a 
baby should be of the best quality, and as fresh a^ 
possible. Observe carefully the directions for the care 
of milk, on p. 94. Scald all pitchers, spoons, measur- 
ing-glasses, and other utensils before letting them touch 
the milk. Never remove the cotton from a bottle of 
pasteurized milk until ready to put the rubber tip on. 
The cotton serves as a strainer to filter bacteria out of 
air passing through it ; if removed, bacteria from the 
air will fall into the milk. 

471. How much and how often to give food. — A common 
error in feeding babies is to give too much at a time. 



294 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

You will probably be surprised to learn how small a 
baby's stomach is. A new-born baby's stomach holds 
only a little more than two tablespoonfuls, that of a 
six-months-old baby about three-fourths of a cupful. 
For this reason it can take but little food at a time, and 
so must be fed often. A graduated bottle makes it 
easy to regulate the quantity given. Give milk at 
regular intervals ; it is a great mistake to feed a baby 
whenever you happen to think of it, or Avhenever it 
cries. 

Giving the bottle. — Heat the milk lukewarm by letting 
the bottle stand in warm water for a few minutes. 
When giving the bottle, hold it so that the neck is kept 
full of milk. Otherwise the baby will swallow air. 
Take the bottle from the child's mouth occasionally to 
let the child rest. Any milk left in the bottle must he 
thrown aivay ; never give it to the child a second time. 

A haby needs water. This should be boiled, cooled, 
and kept covered. Give even a little baby a teaspoon- 
ful or two occasionally. 

472. Food other than milk given to babies. — Barley 
water or oatmeal water are sometimes added to milk, 
not to increase its nutritive value, but because they 
seem to aid the digestion of the milk.^ 

To make barley water, wash one teaspoonful of pearl 

1 Until a baby is nearly a year old it cannot digest starch, the fer- 
ments in the saliva and pancreatic juice not being fully developed till 
then. If nature meant a baby to have starch, there would be starch 
in milk. Patent baby foods should never be used unless ordered by a 



SPECIAL DIETS 295 

harley^ and put it into 07ie pint of cold water. Let it 
come to the boiling-point, and boil till reduced to two- 
thirds the original quantity. Or cook one level tea- 
spoonful of harley flour in one and one-half cupfuls of 
cold water for fifteen minutes. Use barley water 
instead of clear water to dilute the milk. 

Peptonized milk. — Peptonized milk has been wholly 
or partially digested by pepsin. " Pancreatized milk" 
would be a better name, as pancreatin, an extract of the 
pancreas, is now generally used instead of pepsin. 

F%v directions for peptonizing milk, see p. 302. 

If the child is not well the doctor may prescribe beef 
juice or some kind of broth to be given besides milk or, 
for a few days, instead of milk. 

473. Condensed milk is poor food for a baby. Its 
being sterilized makes it difficult of digestion, and the 
quantity of cane-sugar in it is much too large in pro- 
portion to its other foodstuffs. This sugar makes fat, 
but not healthy flesh. Babies fed on it are plump and 
white-fleshed, but rarely grow up strong. It may be 
used for a little while if fresh milk is not obtainable. 

474. Food during the second year. — Milk should be the 
basis of the diet all through the second year. At 
about twelve months of age gruel and beef juice may 
be given ; after the eighteenth month, scraped beef 
(not more than one or two tablespoonfuls at a time), 

doctor. Most of them contain starch, many of those advertised as 
having their starch already digested by malt or some other ferment, 
containing large quantities of starch unchanged. Certain patent 
cereal foods are desirable for a baby old enough to digest starch. 



296 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

soft-cooked eggs once or twice a week, bread dried in 
the oven, and the pulp of a baked apple or of stewed 
prunes. After two years, milk toast, mush, rennet 
custard, and plain starchy puddings may be given. 

475. What the baby must not have. — Give neither 
solid nor starchy food to a baby under one year old. 
Of course, a baby must not have a drop of tea, coffee, 
beer, or any alcoholic liquor. No child under three 
years of age should taste pork, veal, pastry, cakes, 
candy, fried food, highly seasoned dishes, or any 
'' indigestible " food. 

Reading. — Three articles in the American Kitchen Magazine: 
" The Souring of Milk," December, 1895 ; " Milk Fermentation," 
January, 1896; and "Bacteria affecting Butter and Cheese," Feb- 
ruary, 1897. Facts about Milk, Farmers' Bulletin 42. 



Section 2. Diet for the Sick 

Taste the food that stands before you ; 
It is blessed and enchanted. 
It has magic virtues in it. 

— Longfellow. 

476. Importance of proper diet in cases of sickness. — 
Preparing and administering the patient's food is an 
important part of a nurse's work. Recovery, in many 
cases, depends more upon proper food than upon medi- 
cine. The doctor will tell you what to give the patient; 
but the more you know about food, cooking, and diges- 
tion, the more intelligently you will be abla to carry out 
his orders. 



SPECIAL DIETS 



297 



477. Three kinds of diet. — Diets for the sick are classi- 
fied as liquid, light, and convalescent. Liquid diet 
consists entirely of liquid food. In typhoid fever, and 
sometimes in other cases of severe illness, nothing but 
milk is given for a long time. But usually beef juice 
or beef tea, broths, gruels, and, in fevers, cooling drinks 
are included in liquid diet. Hot milk or cocoa, given 
at night, induces sleep ; tea and coffee are usually for- 
bidden at all times, as too stimulating. Wine or 
liquor should never be given unless prescribed by the 
physician. 

Light diet is used in less severe illnesses, or when a 
patient that has been very sick begins to improve. It 
includes everything belonging to liquid diet, and, in 
addition, soft-cooked eggs, soup, gelatine jellies, soft 
puddings, custards, fruit, and a little game, poultry, or 
tender meat. 

Convalescent diet includes all ordinary dishes except 
those particularly difficult of digestion. The change 
from one diet to another should be made gradually. 
Below are given examples of each of these three kinds 
of diet. 

Liquid Diet for One Day 



8 A.M. . . . 


Hot milk, ^ cupful. 


10 A.M. . . . 


Chicken broth, ^ cupful. 


12 A.M. . . . 


Eggnog. 


2 P.M. . . . 


Hot milk, Yz cupful. 


4 P.M. . . . 


Milk punch, or Kumiss, a glassful. 


6 P.M. . . . 


Chicken broth, ^ cupful. 


8 P.M. . . . 


Cocoa, % cupful. 



298 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Light Diet for One Day 

breakfast 

Poached egg on toast. Coffee. 

LUNCH 

Soft custard. 

DINNER 

Broiled mutton chop. Dry toast. 

LUNCH 

Irish-moss jelly. 

SUPPER 

Milk toast. Cocoa. 

Convalescent Diet for One Day 

breakfast 

Mush with cream and sugar. 

Minced chicken on toast. AVhole-wheat muffins. 

Coffee. 

DINNER 

Soup with rice. 

Broiled beefsteak. Baked potatoes. 

Peas. Bread and butter. 

Snow pudding. 

Tea or coffee. 

SUPPER 

Coddled eggs. Toast. 

Lemon jelly. Sponge cake. 

Cocoa. 

478. Sick people fed like children. — You see that in- 
valids have the same sort of food that children do, given, 
as it is to children, frequently and in small quantities. 



SPECIAL DIETS 299 

An alimentary canal weakened by illness may be com- 
pared to an immature one ; so there is sense in reducing 
the diet of a moderately sick patient to that of a little 
child, and the diet of a very sick person to that of a 
baby. Never give a patient anything the doctor has 
forbidden him to eat, no matter how much he wants it. 

479. General rules ; special cases. — Everything you 
know about food and cooking can be made of service to 
the patient. Keep in mind the properties of differ- 
ent foods. What proportion of carbohydrate food to 
proteid does a well person need? (§ 251.) Which 
does a convalescent require more of, force-producing or 
tissue-building food ? Would you give an invalid pork 
and beans ? Pastry ? Fried food ? If not, why not ? 
In general, give no foods about the wholesomeness of 
which there is any doubt. A safe rule to follow is that 
what is not particularly good for healthy people will be 
dangerous to sick ones. How long should gruels be 
cooked ? (pp. 77 and 79.) In what form is albumin most 
easily digestible ? (p. 87.) What is the function of 
gelatin? (§ 244.) What foods would you think good 
for a person wasted by fever? Consumptives need 
an abundance of proteids and fat. What food should 
they have ? Is beef juice nourishing ? Beef extract ? 
(§§ 257 and 288.) Sometimes a patient is restricted 
to one class of foods. For a patient on farinaceous 
(starchy) diet, what dishes would you prepare ? What 
dishes for a patient on nitrogenous diet, i.e. one con- 
taining neither sugar nor starch? 



SCO THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

480. Pre-digested foods are used for invalids as for 
babies. Such are peptonized milk, malted milk, and 
all foods in which the starch has been digested by malt, 
or by some other ferment. 

Recipes for GraiELS 

(See Chapter II, sect. 3.) 

481. Serve gruel hot in a cup on a small plate or 
small tray covered with a doily. 

Oatmeal Gruel 

Oatmeal, ^ cupful. Cold water, 1 quart. 

Salt, 2 teaspoonf uls. 

Cook these together in a double boiler for two hours. 
Press through a strainer, dilute with milk or cream, 
reheat, and serve. The ivell-heaten white of one egg 
stirred into the gruel makes it more nutritious. 

CoRNMEAL Gruel 

(Adapted from ]\Iiss Farmer's ^o.^^/on Cooking School Cook-hook.) 

Coriimeal, 2 tablespoonfuls. Salt, yz teaspoon ful. 

Flour, 1 tablespoonful. Cold water, about j4 cupful. 

Boiling water or hot milk, 3 cupfuls. 

Mix meal, flour, and salt ; stir into them enough 
cold milk or water to make a thin paste, and pour this 
into the hot milk or water. If water is used, cook one 
hour in a saucepan ; if milk, three hours in a double 
boiler. Serve hot, diluted with milk or cream. 



SPECIAL DIETS 301 

Shredded-wheat Gruel 

Shredded-wheat biscuit, 1. Boiling water, 1 pint. 

Salt, 1 teaspoonful. Milk, 1 cupful. 

Cook biscuit, salt, and water together for twenty 
minutes, stirring occasionally. After adding the milk, 
strain. 

Egg Preparations 

(See Chapter III, sect. 1.) 

482. Raw eggs are often prescribed. Break the egg 
into a glass, season it with pepper, salt, and vinegar, 
and let the patient swallow it whole. 

Egg Gruel 

(Adapted from Mrs, Lincoln's Boston Cook-book) 

Egg, 1. Hot milk (not scalded), 1 cupful. 

Sugar, 1 teaspoonful. Nutmeg or lemon juice to flav'or. 

While the milk heats beat the yolk of the egg till 
thick and light colored, the white till stiff. Stir into 
the yolk the other ingredients in the following order : 
Sugar, milk, beaten Avhite, flavoring. Serve hot in a 
glass placed on a plate covered with a doily. 

Eggnog 
Eggs, 1. Wine, 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Sugar, 2 teaspoonfuls. or 

Lemon juice, 1)4 tablespoonfuls. Brand}', 1 teaspoonful. 

or Nutmeg. 

Beat the yolk till thoroughly foamy ; stir in the 
other ingredients. Nutmeg may be omitted. 



302 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 
Shirred Egg 

Break an egg into a buttered cup or egg stirrer ; let 
this stand in a pan of hot water in the oven till the 
white jellies. Season and serve in the same dish placed 
on a plate. 

Milk Preparations 

(See sect. 2 of Chapter III, and paragraph relating to Yeast in 
Chapter IV, sect. 4.) 

483. Milk diet mat/ he varied by giving the milk in 
various forms, e.g. kumiss, milk punch ; if permitted, 
in milk jellies and ice-cream ; and by serving it some- 
times hot, sometimes cold, and sometimes flavored with 
coffee. 

When plain milk does not agree with the patient, 
add a little lime-water or a few grains of salt. 

Albuminized Milk 

Put the white of one egg and half a capful of milk 
into a glass jar, cover tightly, and shake until well 
mixed. 

Peptonized Milk • 

Fairchild's peptonizing powder, 1 tubeful. 
Cold water, % cupful. 

Fresh cold milk, 1 pint. 

Shake the water and powder together in a quart glass 
jar or bottle, add the milk, and shake again. Set the 
jar into warm water, and keep it as near 130° F. as you 
can for twenty minutes. Then put it at once on ice. 



SPECIAL DIETS 303 

Serve with grated nutmeg, sugar, or mineral water, as 
the patient may prefer or the doctor prescribe. 

For a baby, milk is sometimes completely peptonized 
by keeping it at a temperature of 120° for two hours. 

Kumiss 

Milk, 1 quart. Lukewarm water, 1 tablespoonful. 

Sugar, 1 tablespoonful. Hot water, 1 tablespoonful. 

Yeast, yi cake. 

Have ready beer bottles, cleaned, sterilized, and cooled. 
Scald the milk and cool till lukewarm. Boil the sugar 
with the hot water till dissolved. Mix the yeast with 
the lukewarm water. When the syrup is cool, stir it 
and the yeast into the milk. 
Pour at once into bottles, 
filling them to within one 
and one-half inches of the top. 
Cork and shake well. Stand 
in a warm room ten hours. Fig. 18. —Method of tying 
Lay them down in the ice-box ^orks into kumiss bottles. 
for from three to five days. Slow fermentation produces 
the best kumiss, but if needed for use the day after 
making, the bottles may be allowed to stand in the room 
for six hours in summer, twelve in winter, and then 
laid in the ice-box for twelve hours. If ordinary bc^ttles 
are used, tie the corks down as shown in Fig. 18. 

Irish Moss Jelly (or Blanc JMange'^) 

Irish moss, X cupful. Salt, a few grains. 

Milk, 2 cupfuls. Sugar, to suit patient's taste. 

1 French for " white food." 




304 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

After washing the moss, let it soak in the milk in a 
double boiler one hour ; then cook until the milk 
steams, sweeten, and strain into molds. When cold, 
turn out on a colored plate, and serve with cream and 
sugar. Vanilla may be used to flavor either jelly or 
cream, if the doctor approves. 

Gluten Wafers 

(See Chapter IV, sect. 2.) 

Cream, Yz cupful. Gluten flour, enough to make a stiff dough. 

Salt. 

Mix cream and flour, roll out very thin, prick with a 
fork, and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake the wafers 
till crisp and brown. 

Meat Preparations 

484. (See sects. 1 and 2 of Chapter VI, particularly §§ 258, 262, 
269, 281-286, and 289-292.) 

Nourishing Beef Tea 
Lean beef chopped fine, 1 pound. Cold water, 1 pint. 

Flavoring: bit of bay-leaf, sprig of parsley, slice of onion, stalk of 
celery, two or three cloves. (Any or all of these may be used 
if approved by the patient's physician.) Salt and pepper to 
patient's taste. 

Let the beef stand in the cold water for two hours; 
then heat slowly, stirring, in a double boiler, until it 
steams. Strain through doubled cheese-cloth wrung 
out of cold water, and season. This beef tea should 
be bright red, showing that it contains albumin in 
liquid form. The loss of this color shows that it has 



SPECIAL DIETS 305 

been overheated. Use great care in reheating ; if the 
albumin coagulates, strain it out. Serve it in a warm 
glass, red glass if the patient objects to the color of the 
beef tea. 

Beef Juice 

Directions for preparing beef juice are given on 
pp. 144 and 147. Reheat, season, and serve like beef tea. 

MuTTOx Broth 

Neck of mutton, 2 pounds. Bit of bay-leaf. 

Cold water, 1 quart. Small sprig of parsley. 

Salt. 

Cut the meat into small pieces, soak it with the herbs 
one hour, then simmer three hours. Strain, cool, and 
remove fat. Reheat and salt a portion when required. 
Three tablespoonfuls of rice may be boiled and served in 
the strained broth. 

Raw Beef Sandwiches 

(See p. U6.) 

Broiled Beef Tenderloin 

Over a carefully broiled slice of tenderloin, squeeze, 
with a meat-press or lemon-squeezer, the juice of half 
a pound of beef-round. Season with salt, and with 
pepper and lemon juice, if the doctor approves. Use 
no butter. 

Chop broiled in Paper 

Lay the chop between slices of glazed writing paper. 
Trim these to within one inch of the chop, and fold 



306 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

their edges together, enclosing the chop. Broil over 
hot coals, turning often. The paper holds all the 
juices. When the chop is cooked, hold it over the 
dish it is to be served on and remove the paper. 
Season it and serve on toast. 

Clam broth can often be taken by a patient who can 
take no other food. 

Clam Broth (one cupful). 
Large clams, 6 or 8. Water, % cupful. 

Scrub the clams well with a brush and cold water. 

Heat them with the one-fourth cupful of water in a 
covered saucepan till their shells open. Boil for one 
minute after this, and strain through fine wire. Serve 
undiluted, or add a little hot water. 

Wine Jelly 

Granulated gelatine, IX tablespoonfuls. 

Cold water, X cupful. 

Boiling water, 1 cupful. 

Lemon juice, \yi tablespoonfuls. 

Sugar, Yz cupful. 

Wine (sherry or Madeira), yi cupful. 

Make like Lemon Jelly, recipe on p. 164. 

Irish Moss Lemonade 

Irish moss, %. cupful. Cold water, 2 cupfuls. 
Lemon juice and sugar to suit patient's taste. 

Soak the moss in cold water till soft. Pick out dark 
bits and foreign matter. Cook it in the two cupfuls of 



SPECIAL DIETS 307 

water in a double boiler for twenty minutes. Strain, 
flavor, and sweeten. Use hot or cold for patients with 
throat or bronchial inflammation. 

Lemon Whey 

Hot (not scalded) milk, 1 pint. 

Juice of 2 lemons (or 6 tablespoonfuls). 

Add the lemon juice to the milk ; when the latter has 
curdled, strain it through cloth. Serve the whey hot 
or cold in a glass. 

485. The invalid's tray. — Use a tray just large 
enough for the dishes it is to hold. Cover it with a 
spotlessly clean napkin. Arrange it as if you were 
setting a place at the table. Use the prettiest dishes 
you have. 

Except in making jellies, gruels, and other foods that 
are not injured by keeping or reheating, prepare no 
more food than the patient is likely to eat. No food left 
by the patient should be served a second time ; nor 
should food that has been in the sick-room be eaten by 
others. 



CHAPTER XII 
BEVERAGES: TEA, COFFEE, COCOA 

486. The primary service of beverages, or drinks, is 
the quenching of thirst. Thirst being the body's de- 
mand for water, water is the best of beverages, other 
drinks satisfying thirst simply by means of the water 
they contain (§ 65^. 

A decoction is extracted by boiling ; an infusion, by 
treatment with boiling-hot water. 

Section 1. Tea 
A Study of Tea 

487- A. Put a teaspoonful of tea in each of two enamelled-ware 
saucepans, and pour on to one a cupful of boiUng water ; on to the 
other a cupful of water not quite boiling hot. Let them stand five 
minutes. Wliich is darker in color? "Which stronger in taste? 
What action has the water had on the tea ? Which is the best sol- 
vent of tea, boiling, or merely hot, water? (Observe that in water 
below the boiling-point the leaves float.) 

B. Pour off half the tea made with boiling water, and let the 
rest stand ten or fifteen minutes longer. Meanwhile, pour another 
cupful of boiling water on to a spoonful of fresh tea, and boil it 
five minutes. What is its color? Taste ? Add to this, to the tea 
standing on the leaves and the tea poured off, a few drops of cop- 
per sulphate. Does it act on all alike ? At what temperature 

308 



BEVERAGES : TEA, COFFEE, COCOA 309 

should water be for making tea? How long should it steep? 
Should it boil? Give your reasons. 

C. Take out a few of the wet tea leaves and unroll them ; find, 
if possible, an unbroken one ; note its pointed shape and notched 
edges. Do you find any other kinds of leaves? Any sticks or 
other foreign matter? If the tea is Young Hyson, Pekoe, or other 
high-grade tea, look for buds. 

488. Two substances in tea. — Tea is valued chiefly 
for its theine, a principle pleasantly stimulating, al- 
though injurious if taken in excess. Tea also contains 
tannin, a bitter substance used in making ink and in 
tanning leather. In the body it interferes with diges- 
tion, and tends, if taken in large quantities, to toughen 
the lining of the stomach, as tan-bark toughens leather. 

489. Effect of water on tea. — Hot boiling water poured 
over tea dissolves its theine and flavoring matter, making 
a delicate, refreshing drink ; water below the boiling- 
point draws these out imperfectly, and, in consequence, 
the tea is insipid. Boiling the tea, or letting it stand 
long on the leaves, extracts the tannin. Tea made by 
adding fresh water to old leaves in a pot that stands 
on the stove all day is actual poison. 

490. How to have good tea. — 1. Buy good tea ; cheap 
tea is likely to be adulterated w^ith used tea leaves and 
leaves of other plants. 2. Keep it in a closely covered 
glass jar or tin canister ; if exposed to the air it loses 
flavor. 3. Use a china, or silver, or earthen teapot ; 
never a tin one. 4. Have the water freshly drawn, and 
bring it quickly to the boiling-point ; Avater deprived of 



310 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

its air by standing or by boiling gives tea a flat taste. 
5. Have the teapot hot and the water boiling at the mo- 
ment the tea is made. 6. Steep it not over five min- 
utes ; never let it boil. 

Directions for making Tea 

491. Allow from one to three teaspoonfuls of tea to 
two cupfuls of water, using less of close-rolled than of 
coarse, loose teas. When the water boils, scald the pot, 
put in the tea, and pour in the boiling water, and let it 
stand covered from three to five minutes on the side of the 
stove or under a cosy on the table. ^ Serve with sugar 
and milk, or cream, or with sugar and thin slices of 
lemon. For weakening it, use water as nearly as pos- 
sible boiling hot. 

Iced tea, made weak, is a wholesome summer drink. 
Serve it strained, with lemon and powdered sugar. 

492. How tea is grown and made ready for market. — 

Tea consists of the dried leaves of an evergreen shrub 
native to China. In what other countries is it culti- 
vated ? Tea-plants, left to themselves, would grow 
tall, but in a tea-garden they are trimmed to keep them 
bushy. Only young leaves and buds are picked for 
market, the smallest making the finest grades of tea, 
such as Pekoe and Souchong. Tea leaves have to be 
wilted, rolled, "fired" — that is, dried by artificial heat, 

1 Color does not show the strength of an infusion, the finest teas 
giving a light color even after long steeping ; it is tannin that makes 
tea dark. 



BEVERAGES: TEA, COFFEE, COCOA 311 

to develop their flavor and stimulating properties — 
and graded by sifting before they are ready for market. 
Freshly picked leaves carried rapidly through these 
processes keep their natural color, and are sold as green 
tea ; black tea is produced from leaves left in heaps on 
the ground, to darken and develop a different flavor 
before being rolled. 

India teas are cleaner than other black teas, being 
prepared by machinery instead of by hand ; but they 
are said to contain more tannin. Green tea contains 
more tannin than black tea does, and so is more likely 
to cause nervousness. Among green teas are Gun- 
powder, Hyson, Pekoe, and all Japan teas ; among 
black, Formosa and Oolong. 

493. Value of tea. — While not nutritious, tea is a 
useful food adjunct, because it prevents tissue from 
wearing out. For this reason it is excellent for elderly 
people, but bad for children, whose health depends on 
the constant renewal of all parts of their bodies. Nor 
is its stimulating effect good for young nerves. You 
will be wise not to drink tea until you are grown up, 
and then in moderate quantities only. Much of the 
benefit thought to be derived from tea is doubtless 
caused by its heat and the action of swallowing it ; a 
cup of hot water would be equally effective. 

Section 2. Coffee 

494. A study of coffee. — Compare roasted with un- 
roasted coffee beans, observing differences in color, 



312 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

odor, and taste. Brown a few unroasted beans on a 
pan or shovel over the fire, and compare them with the 
roasted ones. What changes does roasting produce in 
coffee? 

Experiment. — Boil together for ten minutes one rounded table- 
spoonful of coffee and one cupful of water ; compare taste with 
that of coffee made by either of the methods given below. In 
what respect is long-boiled coffee like boiled tea? 

495. Coffee — on the plantation and in the market. — 

The coffee ^' bean," or berry, is the seed of the red 
cherrylike fruit of this tropical evergreen, each fruit 
usually containing two berries. When the fruit begins 
to shrivel, it is shaken to the ground and dried until 
the seeds can be easily separated from the pulp. The 
saeds are run between wooden rollers to crack off the 
husk enclosing them, after which they are roasted in a 
revolving cylinder, great care being taken to have the 
degree of heat that will best develop their characteristic 
flavor and odor, or aroma. 

The coffee grown at Mocha is so fine in quality that, 
although none of it is exported, it has given its name 
to a certain kind of high-grade coffee the world over, 
— any small, dark, yellow, roundish bean being termed 
'' iMocha." Java and East India coffees are pale yellow 
before being roasted ; C'eylon, West Indian, and Brazil- 
ian coffees, greenish gray. A good mixture is one part 
of Mocha coffee to two parts of Java. Ground coffee is 
in many cases mixed with other clieaper materials. 

496. Test for adulteration in coffee. — Pour on to about 
a tablespoon ful of ground coffee a cupful of cold water. 



BEVERAGES: TEA, COFFEE, COCOA 313 

If the coffee floats and colors tlie water very slowly, it 
is pure ; but if any of the " coffee " sinks to the bottom 
or stains the water quickly, chicory or some other 
adulterant is present. 

497. Value of coffee. — Coffee, like tea, contains tan- 
nin and theine (generally called caffeine in coffee) ; it 
acts, therefore, much as tea does upon the body, and 
requires similar preparation. The difference in flavor 
and odor between coffee and tea is caused by a differ- 
ence in the aromatic oils they contain. Moderately 
strong coffee in moderate quantities seems to be not 
harmful to grown persons in good healtli, but it is 
unsuitable for boys and girls for the same reasons that 
tea is. It relieves fatigue, and enables a person to 
work for a short time harder than his natural strength 
would permit ; but habitually to stimulate the nerves 
in this way is both unwise and wrong. A woman or 
girl who cannot '' get along " without tea or coffee is as 
much the slave of a drug as a boy with the "cigarette 
habit " or a man who drinks liquor to excess. Much 
ill-health among Americans is caused by drinking too 
much or too strong tea and coffee. Substitutes for 
coffee, made of roasted grains, if not adulterated with 
cheap coffee, are liarmless to children and wholesome 
for any one. 

498. How to have good coffee. — 1. Buy freshly 
roasted, unground coffee, and grind it at liome as 
needed; or buy it freshly ground every two or three 
days. The longer it is kept after roasting, particularly 



314 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

if ground, the more of its aroma does it lose. 2. Keep 
in an air-tight can or jar. 3. Use an enamelled or 
earthen coffee-pot that is scoured clean, not omitting 
the spout, after each using. 4. Either filter the coffee, 
or boil it not longer than three minutes. 5. Have 
coffee powdered for filtering, finely ground for boiling. 
6. Serve with hot, but not scalded, milk. 

Directions for making Coffee 

499. 1. Boiled Coffee. — Use two heaping tablespoon- 
fuls of coffee to one pint of boiling water. Put the coffee 
into the pot, pour on the water, and let it come again 
to the boiling-point. Set it away from the heat, and 
stir in tiuo tahlespoonfuU of slightly beaten egg. Let it 
boil for one minute to clear it ; then keep it hot, where 
it will not boil, for five minutes before serving. 

2. Filtered Coffee. — Use a French coffee-pot. Put 
two heaping table spoonfuls of powdered coffee into the 
bag. Pour over it one pint of boiling ivater. Cover the 
pot and let it stand in hot water till the water poured 
in has filtered through. Pour it out, and turn it 
through the filter again. This makes black coffee, suit- 
able for serving in small cups after dinner. Make 
breakfast coffee less strong. 

Section 3. Cocoa and Chocolate 

500. The cocoa bean ; growing and making it ready for 
market. — Cracked and powdered cocoa,^ all chocolate ^ 

1 A confusing use of terms has resulted from retaining both the 
name chocolate., by which plant and beverage were known to the 



BEVERAGES: TEA, COFFEE, COCOA 315 

preparations, and cocoa shells are products of the seeds of 
the chocolate tree, a native of the tropic countries of 
America. These seeds, called cocoa heans^ which are 
about the size of almonds, lie surrounded by fibrous 
pulp, in a brownish yellow pod about a foot long. When 
fresh, they are whitish in color, and ver}^ bitter. The 
pods as they ripen are cut off with knives fastened on 
poles, and left on the ground to dry for twenty-four 
hours. The seeds are then taken out and thrown into 
heaps to ferment for from two to five days. During 
this process they darken in color, and become milder in 
taste. After this they are roasted, further to improve 
their flavor; but, instead of being ready for use, as 
coffee then is, cocoa must go through the hands of the 
manufacturer before reaching the cook. 

501. How chocolate and cocoa are manufactured. — In 

the factory the beans are cracked into the irregular bits 
we know as cocoa nibs or cracked cocoa. The papery 
shells are winnowed out to be sold by themselves, while 
the nibs are either put up for market, or undergo fur- 
ther preparation. Cocoa beans contain so much fat 
that when ground they become not powder, but paste. 
The cocoa paste, run into molds and cooled, forms 
cakes of plain chocolate ; if flavored and sweetened 
before being molded, it forms sweet chocolate. 

Breakfast cocoa is made by extracting from cracked 

natives of Mexico, and cacao, the name given them by the Spanish. 
The chocolate tree belongs to a different family from the cocoanut 
palm. 



316 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

cocoa, by means of powerful presses, a large proportion 
of its fat, and grinding to powder the dry substance 
left. The fat is sold as cocoa-butter, for making per- 
fumes and ointments, and for other purposes. Dutch 
manufacturers, instead of removing the fat, emulsify it 
(§ 179) by the addition of alkalies. Their method is 
not, however, altogether desirable, and it is probable 
that no imported cocoa or chocolate excels that made 
by leading American firms. 

502. Composition and food value. — Linnaeus, the great 
botanist, named cocoa theohroma^ "food of the gods." 
Roasted cocoa contains about 50 per cent of fat, 15 to 
18 per cent of nitrogenous compounds, and 10 to 13 
per cent of starch. Note fat globules on the surface 
of chocolate that has been standing. Boil one tea- 
spoonful of breakfast cocoa with one-quarter cupful of 
water, and test -it with iodine for starch. It has also 
a small amount of theobromine, a substance similar to 
caffeine, but so much less powerful that neither cocoa 
nor chocolate has the stimulating effect of tea and 
coffee on the nerves. Unlike tea and coffee, cocoa 
preparations are food, whether eaten or taken in the 
form of a drink, since, even in the latter case, the cocoa 
itself, not merely an infusion of it, is swallowed. For 
children and young people it is the best of hot drinks. 
People who do not like prepared cocoas often like 
cracked cocoa ; while even cocoa shells alone makes an 
economical beverage, recommended particularly for the 
sick. 



BEVERAGES: TEA, COFFEE, COCOA 317 

Cocoa is insoluble, but when boiled with w^ater the 
starch thickens sufficiently to keep the other solid 
particles suspended. 

Recipes 

Cocoa made from Cracked Cocoa 

Cracked cocoa (or cocoa and cocoa shells), yi cupful. 
Boiling water, 3 pints. 

Boil cocoa and water together for two hours or more ; 
strain and serve with milk and sugar. Since cocoa 
made in this way improves by cooking, do not throw 
away what is left in the pot, but add each day more 
water and a little fresh cocoa, and boil again. Once a 
week empty and clean the pot. 

Breakfast Cocoa 

Scalded milk, 1 pint. Prepared cocoa,^ 2 tablespoonfuls. 

Boiling water, 1 pint. Sugar, 2 to 4 tablespoonfuls. 

Mix the cocoa and sugar in a saucepan ; stir in the 
water gradually, and boil five minutes ; add the milk and 
cook five minutes longer, or until smooth and free from 
any raw taste. Beat well with a Dover egg-beater to 
prevent albuminous skin from forming. 

Chocolate 

Chocolate,^ 2 squares. Boiling water, 1 cupful. 

Sugar, 4 tablespoonfuls. Scalded milk, 3 cupfuls. 

1 The proportions of cocoa and chocolate in these recipes are for the 
preparations made by Walter Baker and Company. They may have 
to be varied for other kinds. 



318 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 

Put the chocolate cut in bits into a saucepan set 
into hot water ; when melted, add the sugar and wat,er, 
stirring till smooth. Pour into this part of the milk, 
then pour the chocolate back into the rest of the milk, 
and stir till it comes to the boiling-point. Beat till 
frothy witli an egg-whisk or a Dover beater. 

For a luncheon or for afternoon tea serve in tall cups 
with a spoonful of whipped cream on the top of each 
cup. (p. 99.) 

Where to find descriptions and pictures of tea, coffee, and cocoa. — 

Foods and Beverages: Tea, p. 252; Coffee, p. 256; Cocoa, p. 261. 
The Chocolate Plant, published by Walter Baker and Company, 
Dorchester, Massachusetts (many pictures). 



APPENDIX A 



319 



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320 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 





calories. 

1185 
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APPENDIX A 



323 



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324 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 








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APPENDIX A 



325 



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THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY 






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APPENDIX B. 



TABLE SHOWING QUANTITY OF FOODSTUFFS OBTAINED 
IN DIFFERENT FOOD MATERIALS FOR 25 CENTS. 



Taken from Farmers' Bulletin, No. 23. Foods : " Nutritive Value and Cost, 
W. J). Atwater, Ph.D. Published by U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

[Quantities of foodstuffs in pounds. Fuel value in calories.] 



by 



Protein , 



Fats, 



Carbohydrates ; Fuel value. 

FEM — 





S3 




Weights of nutrients and calories of energy 
in 25 cents' worth 






Cts. 


U>. 


1 Lbs. 


» Lbs. 3 L! 


bs. 




2000 Cal. 6000 Cal. 10000 


CaL 




25.0 


1.00 


1 1 1 1 






m 




Beet, sirloin 


Sm 






5.0 


1.67 


a^ 




Beef, ronnd 






Beef, neck , 


6.0 


4.17 


Mmm^^^ 






22.0 


1.14 


m 






tmmia^mmi^^ 






16.0 


1.56 


^^^ 




Ham, smoked . 






Salt pork, very fat 


2.0 


2.08 






Codfish, fresh 


8.0 


3.13 


M 




■■ 






7.0 


3.57 


^i^!l 












12.0 


2. OS 


Sj^l 






^■^i^i^^ 






18.0 

14.; 


1.43 
1.70 


M 










Eggs, 05 cents dozen 


M 




^— ■ 




Milk, 7 cente quart 


3.5 


7.14 


:::tel 1 








Cheese, whole milk 


15.0 


1.C7 


^.JL^ 




Cheese, skim milk 


80 


3.13 


■X:::-.- :■,::■ :.:^ I 




Butter 


■^0.0 


C.83 


=^^=^1 






5.0 


5.00 




-i 






3.0 


6.33 


::::■:::• W 




Wheat flour 












M^heat bread 


7,0 


3.57 


m 1 






2.5 


10.00 


jr- — 1 — r -~ 
















Beans 


■i 


5 00 


m:.mmi J 




Potatoes 


1.2 


20.00 


:-« 1 




Standard for daUy diet for ) 


G« 

Am 


rman'' 
erican' 


m ■ 1 




man at moderate work.--) 


^^—J^ 





j- Atwater. 



INDEX 



Abbreviations, table of, 55. 
Absorption of food in tlie body, 

process of, 197. 
Acetic acid, formation of, in dough, 

129. 
Acids : 

carbonates, action of acids on, 

105. 
effect of, on digestion of starch. 

134. 
experiments with soda and allca- 

lies, 104, 105. 
foods supijlying acids to the body, 

226. 
function in the body, 138. 
hydrochloric acid in gastric juice, 

87. 
metals, action of acids on, 51. 
neutralization of acids by al- 
kalies, 106. 
nitric acid, test for nitrogenous 

substances, 87. 
use of acids in cleaning, 36. 
Adulteration in coffee, test for, 312. 
Air: 

batters made light by beating in 

air, 107. 
cleanliness, air as aid to, 33. 
composition of, 6. 
relation of, to fire, 7. 
relation of, to life, 5. 
testing air for carbon dioxide, 5. 
Albumin : 

albuminized milk, 302. 



Albumin (continued) : 

coagulation of, 86, 87, 145. 

digestion of, 87. 

effect of heat on, 85. 

in eggs, 85. 

in meat, 145. 

in milk, 93. 

test for albumin, 86, 145. 

use of albumin in body, 85. 
Alcohol : 

alcohol produced by yeast, 128. 

effect on the body, 140. 
Alimentary canal and the digestion 

of food, 195. 
Alkalies : 

experiments with acids and al- 
kalies, 105. 

grease removed by, 34. 

neutralization of acids by alka- 
lies, 106. 
Aluminium, cleaning, 34. 
Ammonia : 

grease removed by, 34. 

hard water, softening with am- 
monia, 25. 

laundry-work, use of ammonia 
in, 35. 
Amylopsin in pancreatic juice, 197. 
Anatto, coloring for butter, 98. 
Animal foods, 139, 144. See also Meat. 
Apple sauce, recipe for, 232. 
Apple tapioca, recipe for, 275. 
Apples : 

canning, 285. 



329 



330 



INDEX 



Apples {continued) : 

dried, soaking, 235. 

study of an apple, 226. 
Apricots, dried, 235. 
Asparagus : 

cream-of-asparagus soup (table), 
251. 

information about, 244. 

soup, use of asparagus water for, 
159. 
Assimilation of food, 178. 

Babies, diet for, special preparations 

of milk, 289. 
Bacon, 176, 187. 
Bacteria : 

disease produced by, 33. 

in relation to cleanliness, 33. 

souring of milk caused by, 95. 

study of, 280. 

uses of, 283. 
Baking: 

apples and pears, 233. 

bananas, 233. 

bread, 111, 123. 

cakes, 267. 

definition of term, 52. 

fish suitable for baking whole, 
201. 

potatoes, 59, 65. 

using gas range for baking, 19. 
Baking-pans, greasing, 103, 267. 
Baking-powder : 

composition of, 109. 

leavening power, 104. 

sponge cake, making (table), 268. 

study of, 108. 
Baking-soda : 

a carbonate, 105. 

in baking-powder, 109. 

use with molasses, 260, 264. 

use with sour milk, 106. 
Bananas : 

baking, 233. 

food value, 227. 

serving, 231. 



Barley : 

barley water for babies, 294. 
cereal food, 74. 

soup, making and serving, 162. 
Barley sugar, making, 262. 
Bath brick, use of, for cleaning 

knives, 34. 
Batter : 

action of carbon dioxide on bat- 
ter, 105. 
kinds and definition of, 103, 106. 
Batters and doughs, ingredients, 
means of lightening and short- 
ening, 107. See also Dough. 
Bean pure'e, 252. 
Beans : 

information about, 244, 245. 
proteid food, 237. 
salad, prejiaring beans for, 253. 
Beating, directions for, 89, 90. 
Beef: 

broiled beef tenderloin for in- 
valids, 305. 
corned beef hash, recipe for, 171. 
flesh of cattle known as beef, 

144. 
location of cuts of beef, 173, 180. 
raw beef sandwiches for invalids, 

146. 
recipe for rolled flank of, 168. 
selection of goad beef, 149. 
use of fat as shortening, etc., 224. 
Beef a la mode, 168. 
Beef juice: 
bottled, 147. 
preparing, 144, 305. 
Beefsteak, broiling, directions f(^r. 

149. 
Beef tea, recipe for, 304. 
Beet sugar, 262. 
Beets, information about, 245. 
Beverages, definition of, 308. 
See also Tea and Coffee. 
Bile, 197. 

Binding-material in soups, definition 
of, 249. 



INDEX 



331 



Biscuits, recipe for tea biscuit, 107. 
Black bass, information about, 200. 
Blacking for stoves, composition of, 

37. 
Blade of beef, 181. 
Blanc-mange, recipe for, 303. 
Block sugar, manufacture of, 261. 
Blood : 

iron in, 1.37. 

water in, 2-4. 
Bluefisb, information about, 206. 
Body, value of food to, 71. 
Bodystuffs and foodstuffs, 136. 
Boiling : 

coffee, 314. 

definition of term, 52. 

fish, 202. 

leg of mutton, 154. 

potatoes, 59, 65. 

sugar, boiling to the thread, etc., 
263. 
Boiling-point of water, 28. 
Bone, study of, 157. 
Bones : 

calcium found in, 137. 

soup-stock, use of bones in mak- 
ing, 156. 
Brain-workers : 

diet for, 142. 

fish good for, reasons for, 204. 
Brains of calves used as food, 176. 
Braising, definition of term, 53, 168. 
Brass, cleaning, 34. 
Bread : 

baking, 123. 

characteristics of good bread, 118. 

digestion and food value, 1.34. 

fancy-bread recipes, 1.32. 

hints on mixing and kneading, 
122. 

hints about bread-making, 130. 

quick breads, 102, 110. 

reasons for chewing bread, 134. 

rising, 123. 

toasting, 88. 

uses for stale bread, 132. 



Bread {continued) : 
white bread, 122, 135. 
whole-wheat bread, 124. 
yeast bread, 121. 
Bread crumbs, uses for, 132. 
Bread pudding, recipes for, 273. 
Bread sticks and rolls, making, 123. 
Breakfast cereals, cooking, 74, 78, 79. 
Breakfast cocoa, recipe for, 317. 
Breathing, effect on air, 5. 
Breathing of plants, 7. 
Brisket of beef, location of, 174, 182. 
Broiling : 

beef tenderloin, broiled, for in- 
valids, 305. 
chop broiled in paper for invalids, 

305. 
definition of term, 52. 
directions for, 149. 
fish, 201,202. 

gas range, using for broiling, 19. 
Broth : 

clam, for invalids, 306. 
mutton, for invalids, 305. 
See also Soups. 
Brown gravy, making, 153. 
Brown stew, making, 167. 
Brown sugars, 262. 
Burners of gas ranges, 18. 
Butter : 

mait}'e d'hotel butter, recipe for, 

151. 
study of butter and butter-mak- 
ing, 97. 
Butter cakes ; 

definition of, 264. 
mixing, 266. 
Butter taffy, recipe for, 263. 
Buttered crumbs for scalloped dishes, 

120. 
Butterine, composition of, 213. 

Cabbage : 

cole-slaw, preparing, 257. 

information about, 245. 
Caffeine in coffee, 313. 



332 



INDEX 



Cake frostings and fillings, 270. 
Cakes : 

baking, 267. 

making, 264. 

mixing, hints on, 56. 

proportions of ingredients in, 265. 

recipe for griddle cakes, 103. 

table of recipes for cakes, 268. 
Calcium found in bones, 137, 157. 
Candle, burning, experiments and 

explanation, 7. 
Candy, making, 262. 
Canned foods, 284. 
Canned vegetables, serving, 241. 
Caramel : 

making, 262. 

potatoes, caramel in, 70. 
Caramel custard, recipe for, 273. 
Carbohydrates, function of, 138. 
Carbon dioxide, formation of, experi- 
ments, 5, 9, 105. 
Carbon : 

carbon in starch, 70. 

carbon in wood, 6. 

element existing in form of graph- 
ite, etc., 51. 
Carbonates, action of acids on, 105. 
Carboniferous Age, formation of 

coal, 21. 
Carrot, structure and composition 

of, 236. 
Carrots : 

cream-of-carrot soup (table), 251. 

foodstuffs in carrots, 236. 

information about, 246. 
Cartilage surrounding bone, 157. 
Casein in milk, 93. 
Celery : 

cream-of-celery soup (table), 251. 

information about, 246. 

serving, 243. 

soup, use of celery water for, 159. 
Cells in starch, G9, 136. 
Cells of tissues of the body, descrip- 
tion of, 136. 
Cells of yeast, 125. 



Cellulose in fruit, effect of cooking 

on, 231. 
Cereals : 

cereals compared with potatoes, 
74. 

definition of, 73. 

directions for cooking, 77. 

food value of, 78. 

fruit with, 76, 

hints about breakfast cereals, 78, 
79. 

use of double boiler in cooking 
cereals, 74. 

various kinds of, 74. 

See also Wheat, etc. 
Chalk, insoluble in water, experi- 
ment, 24. 
Chartreuse of rice and meat, recipe 

for, 171 . 
Check damper in coal range, use of, 

13. 
Cheese : 

baked macaroni with cheese, 120. 

cottage cheese, recipe for, 95. 

food value, etc., 99. 

grating, 120. 

recipes, 101. 
Chemical changes of matter, 50. 
Chemical cleaning materials, 34, 36. 
Cherries, canning, 285. 
Chewing of food, 134, 196. 
Chicken : 

croquettes, recipe for, 221. 

fricassee, preparation of fowl, 
etc., 193, 194. 

selecting, 192. 
Chickens, digestive organs of, 195. 
Chocolate ice-cream, making, 279. 
Chocolate icing for cakes, 271. 
Chocolate layer cake, 269. 
Chocolate, manufacture of, etc., 314. 
Chops : 

broiling, 151, 305. 

mutton, veal, etc., 175, 186. 
Chuck ribs of beef, location of, 174, 
182. 



INDEX 



333 



Chyme, digestion of food, 197. 
Citron, 228. 

Clam broth for invalids, 30G, 
Cleaning of wheat in manufacture of 

flour, 115. 
Cleaning : 

bacteria in relation to cleanliness, 
33. 

cleaning floors, hints on sweep- 
ing and scrubbing, 37. 

dishcloth, etc., 46. 

dish-washing, 42. 

faucets, 41. 

fire-box, 15. 

glasses, 44. 

hints on dusting, 38. 

implements and materials for 
cleaning, 33, 47. 

knives, 44. 

metals, 36. 

natural and artificial aids to 
cleanliness, 33. 

oilcloth, 38. 

paint, 38. 

personal cleanliness, 48. 

powders, 34. 

refrigerator, 47. 

removing tarnish and rust, 36, 45. 

silver, 45. 

sink, 41. 
Clearing soup, directions for, IGl. 
Clove of garlic for salad flavoring, 

254, 255. 
Coagulation, definition of, 87. 
Coal: 

anthracite and bituminous coal, 
difference between, 21. 

artificial gas made from coal, 23. 

hard and soft coal, 21. 

origin of, and use as fuel, 20. 

saving coal, 22. 
Coal-oil : 

use as fuel, 22. 

use of, in cleaning, 35. 
Coal ranges, construction and man- 
agement of, 11. 



Cockroaches in kitchen, exterminat- 
ing, 48. 
Cocoa : 

composition and food value, 316. 

insolubility of, 317. 

making breakfast cocoa, 315. 

manufacture, etc., 314. 

recipes for, 317. 
Cod, information about, 206. 
Codfish cakes, recipe for, 222. 
Coffee : 

directions for making, 314. 

growth and manufacture of, 312. 

roasting, 311. 

study of, 311. 

test for adulteration in coffee, 312. 

value of coffee, 313. 
Coffee cake, 269. 
Coffee jelly, recipe for, 165. 
Coffee rennet custard, recipe for, 96. 
Cole-slaw, recipe for, 257. 
Collagen, function of, in the body, 

138, 157. 
Combustion : 

definition of, 9. 

products of, 9, 

study of, 7. 
Comijound, definition of, 50. 
Condensed milk for babies, 295. 
Convalescent diet for the sick, 297. 
Cookery for the sick, see Sick, cook- 
ery for the. 
Cooking of food, reasons for, 52, 197. 
Copper, cleaning, 34. 
Corned beef hash, recipe for, 171. 
Cornmeal : 

gruel, recipe for, 300. 

muffins, recipe for, 112. 

purchase, and directions for keep- 
ing, 76, 79. 

value as food, 78. 
Cornstarch meringue, recipe for, 

275. 
Cottage cheese, recipe for, 95. 
Cottage pudding (table), 268. 
Cottonseed oil, 213. 



334 



INDEX 



Crabs, 210. 

Cracked cocoa, cocoa made from, 

317. 
Crackers, cheesed, recipe for, 100. 
Cranberry jelly, recipe for, 233. 
Cream : 

cream in milk, 92. 

whipped cream, 99. 

See also Ice-cream. 
Cream sauce, recipe for, 67. 
Cream of tartar in baking-powder, 

109. 
Creara-of-vegetable soups, recipes 

for, 248, 251. 
Ci-eamed fish, preparing, 203. 
Creamed potatoes, recipe for, GO. 
Creamy rice pudding, recipe for, 

270. 
Croquettes : 

chicken croquettes, 221. 

materials used in, 220. 

potato croquettes, 222. 

savoury rice croquettes, 222. 

shaping and crumbing, 220. 

soup-meat used in, 163. 

white sauce for, 221. 
Cross-fib of beef, location, etc., 174, 

182. 
Croutons for soups, preparing, 249. 
Crumbs : 

buttered crumbs for scalloped 
dishes, 120. 

uses for bread crumbs, 132. 
Crust of bread,, composition of, 113, 

131. 
Crustaceans, definition of, 210. 
Crystallization, experiment illustrat- 
ing, 260. 
Cucumbers, serving, 243. 
Cup-cake, making (table), 268. 
Cup custards, recipe for, 91. 
Curd of milk, 93, 95. 
Currants : 

cleaning, 133. 

dried currants, 228. 

serving, 230. 



Curry of mutton, recipe for, 172. 
Custards : 

cup custards, recipe for, 91. 

making, 272, 273. 

plain soft custard, recipe for, 
274. 

rennet custards, recipe for, 96. 
Cutlets, veal, 175. 

Dampers in coal range, use and man- 
agement of, 13. 
Dates, food value of, 228. 
Decoction, definition of, 308. 
Delmonico steaks, description of, 173. 
Desserts, making, 272. 
Dextrin, heated dry starch, 70. 
Diaphragm of a fowl, 195. 
Diastase in seeds, definition of, 81. 
Diet: 

babies, diet for, 289. 

meat, danger of eating too much 
meat, 178. 

mixed diet, reasons for, 177. 

practical points about feeding a 
family, 141, 142. 

special diet for the sick, 296. 
Digestion : 

absorption of food, 197. 

action of digestive juices on arti- 
cles of food, 197. 

lesson on digestion illustrated by 
organs of fowl, li)3. 

mastication of food, 196. 

of albumin, 87. 

of bread, 133. 

of fat, 215. 

of fish, 204. 

of gelatine, 165. 

of meat, 179. 

of milk, 97. 

of oysters, 209. 

of poultry and game, 192. 

of quick breads, 112. 

of starch, 71, 134, 197. 

summary of process of digestion, 
199. 



INDEX 



335 



Diseased pork, precaution against, 

176. 
Dish-cloths, cleaning, 46. 
Dish-washing, directions for, 42. 
Disinfectants: 

definition of, 3.3. 

preservatives of food, 283. 
Double boilers for steaming, 74. 
Dough : 

definition of, 106. 

kneading, 122, 1.'30. 

raising, 123. 
Drafts, effect of, on lighted candle, 9, 
Drafts in coal range, 13. 
Drawn butter, i-ecipe for, 203. 
Dried fruits : 

composition and use of, 228. 

imported fruits, cleaning, 2.35. 
Driukijig water, characteristics of 

good drinking water, 26. 
Drop-batter, definition of, 106. 
Ducks, 193. 
Dumplings for brown beef stew, 

recipe for, 167. 
Dust, living and lifeless, 31. 
Dusting, directions for, 38. 

Economy : 

economy in using the best flour, 
117. 

economy in marketing and choos- 
ing meat, 176. 

in choosing fresh vegetables, 240. 

soup an economical dish, 155. 
Egg muffins, recipe for, 111 (table), 

268. 
Egg nog, recipe for, 301. 
Egg sauce, recipe for, 203. 
Eggs: 

beating eggs, 89. 

breaking eggs, 89. 

care and preservation of, 84. 

composition of, 83, 85. 

digestion of, 86. 

egg preparations for invalids, 301. 

food value, 85. 



Eggs {continued) : 

recipe for soft cooked eggs, 88. 

selection and testing, 83. 

study of, 83. 

See also Albumin. 
Eggs in a nest, recipe for, 90. 
Element, definition of, 50. 
Emulsion: 

digestion of fat, 215. 

experiment illustrating, 97. 
Energy in coal, 21. 
Energy supplied to the body by 

foods, 71, 73, 259. 
Entire wheat flour, production of, 
118. 

Fancy breads, recipes for, 133. 
Fancy omelets, 91. 
Farina, steaming, 79. 
Fat: 

clarifying, 219. 

cooking in, frying and saute'ing, 
216. 

fat suspended in milk, 97. 

removing fat from stock, 161. 

use of fat for shortening, etc., 
224. 
Fats : * 

composition, 213. 

function in the body, 138, 212. 
Faucets, cleaning, 41. 
Feeding-bottles, 292. 
Fehling's solution, test for maltose, 

71. 
Fermented liquors, effect of, on the 

body, 140. 
Ferments and fermentation, explana- 
tion of, 128, 282. 
Fibre : 

in meat, 145. 

in potatoes, 62. 

in vegetables, 238. 
Figs, food value of, 228. 
Fillings for cakes, recipes for, 270. 
Filters, cleansing, etc., 27. 
Finger rolls, making, 123. 



336 



INDEX 



Fire: 

cleaning fire-box, 15. 

definition of kindling point, 16. 

laying a fire, 15. 

management of coal range, 11. 

management of gas range, 18. 

management of kitchen fire, 11. 

relation of air to, 7-10. 

starting a fire, 15. 

See also Coal and Combustion. 
Fish : 

baking, 201. 

boiling, 202. 

broiling, 201. 

cleaning, 200. 

creamed, 203. 

distinction from shellfish, 200. 

food value and digestion of, 204. 

information about, 206. 

recipes for sauces, 203. 

reheating, 203. 

scalloped, 203. 

selecting, 200. 

structure of a fish, 200. 

See also Shellfish and Oysters. 
Fisli balls, recipe for, 222. 
Flame, definition of, 9. 
Flank of beef, location, etc., 174, 

183. 
Floors, cleaning and care of, 37. 
Flour : 

analysis of wheat flour, 113. 

best flour the most economical, 
117. 

graham flour, 118. 

manufacture of flour, 116. 

whole-wheat flour, 118. 

See also Wheat. 
Flour-pastes, macaroni, etc., method 

of making, 118. 
Folding, directions for, 00. 
Food adjuncts, definition of, 140. 
Food : 

animal and plant foods, 139. 

classification of, 137, 139. 

function of food, 139. 



Food (continued) : 

methods of cooking, 52. 

reasons for cooking, 52. 

See also Diet. 
Foods, elements in, 50. 
Force supplied to the body by food, 

71, 73, 259. 
Fowls, see Chickens. 
Freezing point of water, 29. 
French bread-pans, use of, 131. 
French dressing for salads, 254. 
French omelet, recipe for, 90. 
Fresh-water fish, information about, 

207. 
Fricassee : 

chicken, preparation and recipe, 
193, 194. 

definition of, 53, 167. 
Friction, use of, in cleaning, 33. 
Frosting for cakes, recipes for, 270. 
Fruit : 

adding fruit to cakes, 267. 

composition and food value of, 
227. 

definition of fruit, 227. 

directions for stewing, 232. 

dried fruits, 228. 

effect of cooking on, 231. 

fruit served with cereals, 76. 

preparing and serving, 229, 230. 

removing fruit stains, 46. 

rules for eating fruit, 228. 

sugaring, 230. 

See also Apples, etc. 
Fruit cake, 268. 
Fruit sauce, 271. 
Frying : 

definition of term, 53. 

digestion of fried food, 215. 

directions for frying, 217. 

objection to frying meat, 151. 
Fuel foods : 

fat from animals and oil from 
plants, 212. 

starchy plants, 59. 
Fuels, use of coal, wood, etc., 20. 



INDEX 



337 



Game, food value, selection, etc., 192. 
Garbage-pail, cleaning, etc., 41, 42. 
Gas stoves : 

broiling by, 150. 

construction and management of, 
17. 
Gases : 

explanation of, 29. 

natural and artificial gas, 23. 
Gastric juice: 

action on albumin, 87. 

action on meat, 87, 179. 

glands in stomach, secreting, 197. 
Gelatin, digestion of, 1G5. 
Gelatine : 

directions for using, 163. 

gelatinous portions of meat, uses 
for, 155. 

jellies, recipes for, 164. 
Gelatinoids, function in the body, 

138. 
Gingersnaps, whole wheat, making 

(table), 268. 
Gingerbread, making (table), 268. 
Glasses, washing, 44. 
Glucose, 197, 262. 

manufacture of commercial glu- 
cose, 262. 
Gluten : 

composition of, 114. 

definition of, 113. 

recipe for gluten wafers, 304. 

test for, 114. 
Gold cake, making (table), 268, 
Goose, 193. 
Graham flour, 116. 
Granulated sugar, manufacture of, 

261. 
Grape-fruit, serving, 231. 
Grape sugar, definition of, 262. 
Gravy : 

brown, making, 153. 

stock used instead of water, 161. 
Grease, removal of , 34, 37. 
Greasing cake-pans, 267. 
Green pea soup, recipe for, 249. 



Green vegetables, care and cooking 

of, 240, 242. 
Griddle cakes, recipe for, 103. 
Gristle, 157. 
Gruel, recipes for, 300. 

Haddock, information about, 206. 
Halibut, information about, 206. 
Hams, 176, 187. 

Hard and soft coal, difference be- 
tween, 21. 
Hard sauce, recipe for, 272. 
Hard water, softening, 25, 30. 
Harvesting of wheat, 81. 
Hash : 

browning hash, 171. 

corned beef hash, 171. 

directions for making, 170, 

fish hash, preparing, 204. 

minced meat on toast, 171. 
Health, use of water in the body, 30, 
Heat : 

albumin, heat as test for, 86. 

cooking meat, facts as to effect of 
heat, 146. 

effect of heat on starch, 70. 

effect of heat on sugar, 262, 

effect of heat on water, 27, 

yeast, growth of, aided by heat, 
127. 

See also Fuel foods. 
Homes and home-making, 1. 
Hominy, purchase, and directions 

for cooking, 76, 79. 
Honey, 262. 

Household science, definition of, 2. 
Huckleberries, indigestibility of, 

228. 
Hydrochloric acid in gastric juice, 

87. 
Hydrogen : 

element of food, 51. 

starch, hydrogen in, 70. 

Ice, freezing point of water, 29. 
Ice-box, care of, 47. 



338 



INDEX 



Ice-cream : 

directions for freezing cream, 277. 

flavorings for, 279. 

freezing mixture for, 276. 

recipe for plain ice-cream, 279. 
Iced tea, .HIO. 
Icings for cakes, 270. 

chocolate icing, 271. 

quick frosting, 270. 

soft frosting, 270. 
Ices, see Water ices. 
Imi)lements and materials for clean- 
ing purposes, 33, 47. 
Indian corn, 74, 79. 
Infusion, definition of, 308. 
Ingredients iu cakes, proportions of, 

265. 
Inorganic foodstuffs, chief, 139. 
Inorganic matter, definition of tei-m, 

25. 
Insects in kitchen, exterminating, 48. 
Intestines, absorption of food by, 197. 
Iodine as test for starch, 61, 68. 
Irish moss jelly, recipe for, 303. 
Irish moss lemonade, making, 306. 
Irish oats, soaking before cooking, 

77. 
Iron: 

cleaning, 34. 

in blood, 137. 
Isinglass, manufacture of gelatine, 

166. 
Italian pastes, method of making, 
118. 

Jellies : 

cranberry, 233. 

gelatine, 1()3. 

Irish moss, 303. 

making, 286. 

wine jelly for invalids, 306. 

Kerosene : 

fuel, use of kerosene as, 22. 
polished wood, cleaning with kero- 
sene, 35. 



Kidneys, location of, 173. 
Kindling-point, 16. 
Kneading : 

directions for, 122. 

reasons for, 130. 
Knives, steel, cleaning, 34, 43, 44. 
Knuckle of veal, location of, 184. 
Kumiss, recipe for, 303. 

Lacteals, digestion of fat by, 215. 
Lactic acid in sour milk, 95. 
Lamb : 

chops, broiling, 150. 

good meat, selection of, 149. 

location of cuts of, 175, 185. 

stew, recipe for, 166. 
Larding : 

fish, 201. 

steak, 169. 
Laying fires, method, 15. 
Lead poisoning from water, risk of, 

27. 
Leaf-lard, making, 176. 
Lean meat, composition, structure, 

and preparation, 144. 
Leg of mutton : 

directions for boiling, 154. 

location of, 175, 185. 
Legumes, definition of, 237. 
Legumin, definition of, 237. 
Lemon ice, making, 279. 
Lemon jelly, recipe for, 164. 
Lemon sauce, recipe for, 271. 
Lemon Avhey, recipe for, 307. 
Lemonade : 

Irish moss lemonade, making, 306. 

recipe for, 234. 
Lentils, proteid food, 237. 
Lettuce, preparing for salad, 253. 
Light diet for the sick, 297. 
Light fruit cake, making, 268. 
Lightening of batters, etc., 103, 105, 

107. 
Lighting gas ranges, directions for, 

19. 
Liquid diet for the sick, 297. 



INDEX 



339 



Liquid yeast, 120. 
Liquids, explanatiou of, 29. 
Liquors, alcoliolic, effect on the 

body, 140. 
Lima beans, information about, 244. 
Lime, function in the body, 139. 
Litmus paper, action of acids and 

alkalies on, 105. 
Loaf sugar, manufacture of, 2G1. 
Lobsters, 210. 

Loin of beef, location of, 173, 180. 
Loin of mutton and lamb, 175, 185. 

Macaroni : 

baked, with cheese, 120. 

composition, etc., 118. 

manufacture of, IIS. 

soup, making and serving, 1G2. 
Mace'doine salad, 254, 25(5. 
Mackerel, information about, 206. 
Maize, cereal food, 74. 
Maitre d'hotel butter, recipe for, 151. 
Maltose, digestive action on starch, 

71. 
Manufactures : 

cocoa and chocolate, 315. 

flour, 115. 

gelatine, 165. 

sugar, 260. 
Maple sugar, manufacture of, 262. 
Marketing, hints on, 176. 
Marrow in bone, 157. 
Mashed potato, recipe for, 66. 
Mastication of food, 196. 
Matter, nature and changes of, 49. 
Mayonnaise dressing, 254, 257. 
Meals, planning, 142. 
Measuring, directions and tables, 53, 

54, 56. 
Meat : 

chartreuse of rice and meat, re- 
cipe for, 171. 

cuts, marketing and food value, 
172. 

diet, danger of eating too much 
meat, 178. 



Meat (continued) : 

preparations for the sick, 304. 

structure, composition, and cook- 
ing, 144. 

See also Beef, Mutton, etc. 
Metals : 

action of acids on, 51. 

cleaning, experiments, 35. 

rust and tarnish, removing, 36. 
Microscopic plants, study of bacteria, 

280. 
Milk : 

analysis of, 92. 

action of renuet on, 96. 

care of, i>4. 

composition of, 93. 

diet for babies, special prepara- 
tions of milk, 289. 

digestion of, 97. 

directions for buying milk, 94. 

food value of, 93. 

milk preparations for invalids, 
302. 

pasteurizing, 291, 293. 

scalding, 95. 

souring, 95. 

study of, 93. 
Milk-sugar in whey, 93. 
Minced meat on toast, recipe for, 171. 
Mineral salts, see Salts. 
Mixed- vegetable soup, recipe for, 162. 
Mixing, directions for mixing muf- 
fins, bread, etc., 56, 110, 122, 
266. 
Modified milk for babies, 290. 
Molasses : 

manufacture of, 260. 

soda used with, 260, 264. 
Molasses cakes, making, 267, 269. 
Molasses candy, recipe for, 263. 
Mold, description and illustration, 32. 
Molluscs, class of shellfish, 208. 
Muffins : 

corumeal, 112. 

egg muffins, 111. 

hints on mixing, 56. 



340 



INDEX 



Muffins {continued) : 

plain, 111. 

recipes for, 111. 

table, 2G8. 

whole wheat, 112. 
Muskmelons, serving, 231. 
Mutton, 114. 

boiling leg of mutton, directions 
for, 154. 

broth, making, 305. 

chops, broiling, 150. 

curry of mutton, recipe for, 172, 

location of cuts of, 175, 185. 

selection, 149. 
Myosin, 146. 

Natural gas, source of, 23. 

Navel of beef, 174, 183. 

Nerves, phosphorus found in, 137. 

Neutralization, explanation of, 106. 

Nickel, cleaning, 42. 

Nitric acid, test for nitrogenous 

substances, 87. 
Nitrogen, properties of, 51. 
Nitrogenous foods, definition of, 85. 
Noodle soup, recipe for, 120, 162. 
Normal diet, explanation of, 141. 

Oatmeal : 

gruel, recipe for, 300. 

steaming, directions for, 75, 79. 

value as food, 78. 
Oatmeal-water for babies, 294. 
Oil: 

cottonseed oil, 213. 

definition of, 212. 

distinction between fats and oils, 
212. 

frying in olive oil, 218. 

manufacture of olive oil, 212. 
Oilcloth, cleaning, 38. 
Olein, 212. 

Oleomargarine, composition of, 213. 
Olive oil : 

frying in, 218. 

manufacture of, 212. 



Omelets : 

fancy, recipes for, 91. 

French, recipe for, 90. 
Onion, growth of, experiment, 237. 
Oranges, serving, 231. 
Organic foodstuffs, chief, 137. 
Organic matter, definition of term, 

25. 
Organs of the body, definition and 

functions of, 136. 
Ossein, 157. 
Ovens : 

cake-baking, heat of oven, 267. 

construction and management, 
12, 16, 18. 
Oxidation : 

definition of, 50, 72. 

oxidation of food in the body, 6, 72. 

rusting of metals, 50. 

slow and rapid oxidation, 72. 
Oxygen : 

as an element of food, 50, 

combustion, 10. 

oxygen in starch, 70. 

oxygen necessary to growth of 
yeast, 128. 

properties of, 50. 

use of, in the body, 6. 
Oyster: 

food value and digestion, 209. 

how the oyster lives, 208. 

structure of, 208. 
Oysters : 

frying, directions for, 219, 223. 

oyster stew, 210. 

preparation of, 209. 

scalloped oysters, 210. 

serving raw oysters, 209. 

Packing flour, 117. 
Paint, cleaning, 38. 
Palmitin contained in fats, 212. 
Pan-baking, 53. 
Pan-broiling, 151. 

Pancreatic juice, composition of and 
use in digestion of food, 197, 



INDEX 



341 



" Pancreatizecl milk," 295. 
Paraffin, covering jelly, 287. 
Parker House rolls, recipe for, 132. 
Parsley : 

cutting, directions for, 66. 

preparing for salad, 253. 
Pasteurizing milk, 291, 293. 
Pastry, digestion in the body, 

215. 
Peach ice-cream, making, 279. 
Peaches : 

dried, soaking, 235. 

canning, 285. 
Peanut, brittle, candy, recipe for, 

264. 
Pears: 

canning, 285. 

directions for baking, 233. 
Peas: 

analysis of, 237. 

green pea soup, recipe for, 219. 

information about, 246. 

split pea soup (table), 251. 
Pectin, 227, 286. 
Pepper, white and black, use of, in 

cooking, 66. 
Pepsin : 

experiment showing digestion of 
eggs, 87. 

gluten in bread digested by pep- 
sin, 134. 

in gastric juice, 86. 
Peptones, 197. 

Peptonized milk, 295, .300, 302. 
Perch, information about, 207. 
Phosphate of lime in bone, 157. 
Phosphorus : 

burning, 17. 

in nerves, 137. 
Physical changes of matter, 50. 
Pineapple, serving, 231. 
Pineapples, food value, 228. 
Plain bread pudding, recipe for, 

273. 
Plain muffins, recipe for. 111. 
Plain spice cake, making, 269. 



Plant foods: 

definition of, 139. 

food value of cereals, 78. 
Plant origin of coal, 20. 
Plate of beef, location, 174, 182. 
Plums, canning, 285. 
Polished wood, cleaning with kero- 
sene, 35. 
Popovers, recipe for, 102. 
Pork: 

cuts of, location, etc., 175, 387. 

flesh of swine known as, 144. 
Porterhouse steak, 149, 152, 173. 
Potash : 

grease removed by, 34. 

potatoes, potash salts contained 
in, 62. 

use in the body, 139. 
Potato: 

croquettes, recipe for, 222. 

salad, recipe for, 256. 

soup (table), 251. 
Potatoes : 

baked, 59. 

boiled, 59. 

cereals compared with, 74. 

choosing and keeping, 63. 

composition, 61, 62. 

cooking, 64, 65. 

creamed, 66. 

food value, 67. 

growing and harvesting, 63. 

mashed, 66. 

paring, 64. 

riced,66. 

sprouting, 63. 

study of a white potato, 60. 

sweet potatoes, 67. 
Poultry, food value, selection, etc., 

192. 
Pour-batter, definition of, 106. 
Powdered sugar, manufacture of, 

262. 
Practice, definition of, 2. 
Pre-digested foods for babies and 
invalids, 295, 300. 



342 



INDEX 



Preservation of food, 280. 

eggs, preserving, 84. 
Prime ribs of beef, location, etc., 

174, 180. 
Proteids : 

assimilation of, in the body, 178. 

beef-j nice containing i^roteids, 145. 

definition of, 137. 

digestion of, 197. 

fuel foods, 139. 

hints on diet, 142. 

pulp of meat consisting of, 146. 

vegetables supplying proteids , 237. 
Prunes : 

food value of, 228. 

stewing, 235. 
Ptyalin, 71. 
Puddings : 

bread-pudding recipes, 273. 

cottage pudding (table) , 2G8. 

recipes, 273. 

sauces, recipes for, 271. 

suet pudding (table), 2()8. 
Pure and impure water, organic 

and inorganic imj)urities, 25. 
Purees : 

bean puree, recipe for, 252. 

definition of purees, 248. 
Putrefaction caused by bacteria, 282. 
Putz pomade, composition of, 37. 
Pylorus, digestion of food, 197. 

Queen of puddings, recipe for, 273. 
Quick breads, definition of, 102, lOG. 
Quick frosting for cakes, 270. 
Quince jelly, making, 287. 

Rack of veal, location of, 175, 184. 
Radishes, serving, 243. 
Raisins : 

food value, 228. 

stoning, 267. 
Ranges : 

cleaning and care of, 40. 

construction and management of, 
11, 17. 



Raw beef sandwiches for invalids, 

making, 146. 
Raw fruit, eating, rules for, 229. 
Raw meat, care of, 148. 
Raw oysters, serving, 209. 
Raw sugar, manufacture of, 260. 
Raw vegetables, serving, 243. 
Rechauffes: 

directions for making, 170. 

recipes for, 170. 

soup-meat used in, 163. 
Red meat, nutriment contained in, 

178. 
Refrigerator, care of, 47. 
Rendering fat, 218. 
Rennet : 

action on milk, 96, 128. 

custard, recipe for, 96. 
Rennin, aid in digestion of milk, 97. 
Rhubarb sauce, making, 234. 
Rice : 

cereal food, 74. 

chartreuse of rice and meat, recipe 
for, 171. 

cooking, directions for, 75, 79. 

creamy rice pudding, recipe for, 
276. 

making and serving soup, 162. 

savory rice croquettes, 232. 

value as food, 78. 

washing, 76. 
Riced potato, recipe for, 66. 
Rising of bread, 123, 131. 
Roasting : 

basting meat, reasons for, 153. 

definition of term, 52. 

directions for, 152, 153. 

gas range, use of broiling oven for 
roasting, 19. 
Rolled flank of beef, recipe for, 168. 
Rolls, bread, making, 12;5, 125, 132. 
Roots, feeding-organs of plants, 2.37. 
Rottenstone, use of, for cleaning 

purposes, 34. 
Round of beef, location of, 174, 181. 
Rump of beef, location of, 174, 180. 



INDEX 



343 



Rust, 36. 
Rye, 7i. 

Sal-soda, see Soda. 
Salads and salad-making, 252. 
cole-slaw, 257. 
cooked salad dressing, 256. 
mayonnaise dressing, 257. 

mixed vegetable salad, 256. 

potato salad, 256. 

stuffed tomato salad, 258. 
Saliva, action on food, 71, 134, 

196. 
Salmon, information about, 207. 
Salt meats, cooking and food value 

of, 131. 
Salt: 

action on meat, 147. 

making, 51. 

preservation of food by, 284. 

solubility in water, 24. 
Salts : 

definition of, 51. 

in vegetables, 236, 238. 

mineral salts in wheat, 114. 

test for salts in meat, 146. 
Salt-water fish, table of information, 

206. 
Sandwiches, raw beef, for invalids, 

146. 
Sapolio, composition of, 37. 
Saponified fat, 215. 
Sauces, recipes for : 

apple, 232. 

caramel, 273. 

drawn butter, 203. 

egg, 203. 

fish, 203. 

piidding, 271. 

rhubarb, 234. 

stock used instead of water, 161. 

tartar, 202. 

thickening with stai'ch, 70. 

tomato, 120, 151. 

white, 67, 221, 243. 
Sausages, making, 176. 



Sauteing, definition of, and direc- 
tions for, 53, 223. 
Savory rice croquettes, recipe for, 

222. 
Scalding milk, 95. 
Scalloped dishes : 

buttered crumbs for, 120. 

fish, preparing, 203. 

vegetables, 243. ' 
Scalloped oysters, recipe for, 210. 
Science, household, definition of, 2. 
Scrubbing brushes, cleaning, 47. 
Scrubbing floors, 37. 
Seasonings, 55. 
Seeds, oil contained in, 214. 
Sewage, pollution of water, 26. 
Shad, information about, 207. 
Shaddocks, serving, 231. 
Shellfish as food, cooking, etc., 200. 
Shin of beef, location of, 174. 
Shirred egg, recipe for, 302. 
Shortening : 

batters, etc., 107. 

beef fat as, 224. 
Shoulder of mutton, 175, 186. 
Shredded-wheat gruel, recipe for, 

301. 
Shrimps, 210. 
Sick, cookery for the : 

arrangement of invalid's tray, 307. 

beef juice, 305. 

beef tea, 304. 

chop broiled in paper, 305. 

clam broth, 306. 

cornmeal gruel, 300. 

egg preparations, 301. 

Irish moss jelly, 303. 

Irish moss lemonade, 306. 

lemon whey, 307. 

meat preparations, 304. 

milk preparations. 302. 

oatmeal gruel, 300. 

pre-digested foods for invalids, 
300. 

raw beef sandwiches, 146. 

rules for diet, 296-299. 



344 



INDEX 



Sick, cookery for the (co7itinued) : 

shredded-wheat gruel, 301. 

wine jelly, 30G. 
Silver cake, making (table), 268. 
Silver, cleaning, 34, 44, 45. 
Simmering, regulation of gas range 

burner, 19. 
Simmering-point of water, 28. 
Sinks, construction and cleaning, 

39. 
Sirloin of beef, 149, 152, 173, 181. 
Skim milk, use of, 94. 
Skirt steak, location, etc., 174, 183. 
Smelts, information about, 207. 
Smoke, product of combustion, 10. 
Soap, composition and cleaning prop- 
erties, 34. 
SoaiJstone griddle, use of, 104. 
Soda : 

cleaning, care in using sal-soda, 
34, 35. 

hard water, softening, 25. 

See also Baking-soda. 
Sodium : 

in the body, 139. 

water decomposed by, 30. 
Soft and bard coal, difference be- 
tween, 21. 
Solids, explanation of, 29. 
Solubility of substances in water, 

experiments, 24. 
Soot: 

preventing accumulation of soot 
in coal range, 12. 

product of combustion, 10. 
Soup-making, 155, 162. 
Soup-stock : 

making, 155, 158. 

use of vegetable cooking water, 
242. 
Soups : 

cream-of-vegetable soups, 248, 251. 

croutons, preparing, 249. 

green pea soup, 249. 

noodles, making, 120. 

lomato soup, 250, 251. 



Sour milk: 

cause of, 95. 

neutralization of, by soda, 105, 
106. 
Spaghetti : 

manufacture of, 118. 

tomato sauce with, 120. 
Sparkling jelly, serving, 165. 
Spice cake, making (table) , 268. 
Spinach, information about, 247. 
Split-pea soup (table), 251. 
Spoiling of food, relation of bacteria 

to, 280. 
Sponge, definition of, 124. 
Sponge cake, making (table) , 268. 
Sponge cakes, definition of, 265, 

266. 
Spring chicken, definition of term, 

192. 
Spring wheat : 

composition of, 118. 

difference between spring and 
winter wheats, 81. 
Sprouting of potato and composition 
of potato, relation between, 63. 
Squashes : 

care of, 240. 

cooking, 247. 

information about, 247. 
Stains, fruit, removing, 46. 
Stale bread, uses for, 131. 
Standard cake, making (table), 268. 
Starch: 

cells in, 69, 136. 

composition of, 68, 70. 

digestion of, 71, i;34, 197. 

effect of heat on, 70. 

food value of, 71. 

prevention of lumping when cook- 
ing, 69. 

sources of, 68. 

study of, 69. 

test for, 61, 68. 

thickening sauces with, 70. 

See also Wheat, Flour, Potatoes, 
etc. 



INDEX 



345 



Steam, changing of water into, 28. 
Steam-engine, body compared to, 

72. 
Steaming : 

cereals, steaming, directions for, 
74, 79. 

definition of terra, 53. 

double boilers, using, 74. 

moist and dry steaming, 74. 
Steapsin, 197. 
Stearin, 212. 
Steel knives: 

cleaning, 34, 43, 44. 

removal of rust from, 36. 
Sterilization: 

definition of, 284. 

directions for sterilizing, 284. 

milk, 291. 

sterilizing jars, 285. 
Stewing: 

definition of term, 52. 

directions for stewing meat, 160, 
169. 

fruit, directions for, 232. 

prunes, directions for, 235. 
Stews : 

chicken, preparing, 194. 

dumplings for, 167. 

lamb slew, recipe for, 166. 

oj'ster stew, 210. 

stock used instead of water in , 161. 
Stirring ingredients, directions for, 

90. 
Stock-making, 155, 158. 

vegetable cooking water, using, 
242. 
Stomach, digestion of food, 196. 
Stove-blacking, composition of, 37. 
Stoves : 

broiling by gas stove, 151. 

cleaning and care of stove, 46. 

construction and management of 
gas stoves, 17. 

ranges and stoves, distinction 
between, 12. 
Strainer-cloths, washing, 46. 



Strainers, wire, washing, 43. 
Strawberries, canning, 285. 
Strawberry ice-cream, making, 279. 
String beans: 

information about, 245. 

preparing for salad, 253. 
Striped bass, information about, 208. 
Stuffed tomato salad, 255, 258. 
Stuffing: 

fisb, baked, stuffing for, 201. 

recipe for, 168. 
Suet: 

butter or drippings substituted 
for, 268. 

frying with suet mixed with 
lard, 224. 
Suet pudding, making (table), 268. 
Sugar: 

boiling, 263. 

food value, 259. 

growth of yeast hastened by, 126. 

maltose formed in starch diges- 
tion, 71. 

manufacture, 260. 

soluble in water, 24. 
Sugar cookies, making (table), 268. 
Sugaring fruits, 230. 
Sunlight : 

as aid to cleanliness, 33. 

coal, sun as source of energy in, 
21. 
Swedish rolls, recipe for, 133. 
Sweeping floors, 37. 
Sweet breads, definition of, 176. 
Sweet potatoes, cooking, 67. 
Sweets and sugar, 259. 

Tallow, purified mutton fat, 175. 
Tannin, 309, 313. 

test for, 313. 
Tapioca : 

apple tapioca, recipe for, 275. 

manufacture of, 272. 
Tarnish on metal, explanation and 

removal of, 36, 45. 
Tartar sauce, recipe for, 203. 



346 



INDEX 



Tea: 

composition of, 309. 

directions for making, 310. 

effect of waj;er on , 309. 

growth and preparation of, 310. 

hints on huying, 309. 

iced tea, 310. 

stimulating property of, 309. 

study of, 308. 
Tea-biscuit, recipe for, lOG. 
Temperature of water, boiling and 

freezing points, etc., 28. 
Tender meat, cooking, 148. 
Tendon in meat, explanation of, 

147. 
Theine in tea and coffee, 309, 313. 
Theobroma, name given to cocoa, 

310. 
Theory, definition of, 2. 
Thoracic duct, 215. 
Tin, cleaning, 34. 
"Tissue, definition of, 13(5. 
Tissue-building foods, 83, 144. 
Tissues of the body renewed by food, 

72. 
Toast : 

directions for making, 88. 

eggs dropped on toast, 89. 

using gas range for toasting', 19. 

water toast, making, 88. 
Tomato : 

sauce, recipe for, 120, 151. 

spaghetti with tomato sauce, 120. 

soup, recipe for, 1G3, 250, 251. 

stuffed tomato salad, 255, 258. 
Tomatoes : 

canning, directions for, 28G. 

serving, 243. 
Tough meat: 

explanation of, 148. 

stewing and braising, 165. 
Towels and cloths, care of, 45. 
Trade names of sugars, 2(il. 
Training for home making, impor- 
tance of, 3. 
Tripe as food, 176. 



Tripoli, use of, for cleaning pur- 
poses, 34. 

Trypsin, 197. 

Tuber, potato stem, 61, 63. 

Turnip, cream-of-turnipsoup (table), 
251. 

Turkeys, selection of, 193. 

Typhoid fever, bacteria causing, 281. 

Vanilla ice-cream, making, 279. 
Vapor, definition of, 28. 
Veal : 

flesh of calves known as, 144. 

location of cuts of, 175, 184. 
Vegetable foods, see Plant foods. 
A^egetables : 

cooked, preparing for salad, 
253. 

food value, selection, etc., 235. 

preparation of fresh vegetables, 
241. 

study of growing vegetables, 238. 
Vermicelli : 

manufacture, etc., 118, 120. 

soup, making and serving, 162. 
Villi in intestines, absorption of food 
by, 198. 

Wafers, gluten, recipe for, 304. 
AVarmed-over dishes, 170, 203. 
Washing dishes, directions for, 42. 
Washing-soda, see Soda. 
Water : 

action of cold and hot water on 
meat, experiments, 147, 154. 

as natural aid to cleanliness, 33. 

as product of combustion, 9. 

characteristics of good drinking 
water, 26. 

effect of cold on, 29. 

effect of heat on, 27. 

effect of water on tea, 309. 

filtering, 27. 

function in the body, 139. 

potatoes, percentage of water in, 
62. 



IXDEX 



347 



"Water (continued) : 

soft water best for cleauing and 
cooking, 25. 

solvent, water as, 24. 

uses, composition, etc., 23. 
Water-bugs in kitchen, exterminat- 
ing, 48. 
Water-ices : 

directions for making, 27G, 278. 

recipe for lemon ice, 279. 
Water toast, making, 88. 
AVater vapor, definition of, 28. 
Weakfish, information about, 207. 
Weights and measures, directions 

and tables, 53, 54. 
Wells, pollution of, by sewage, 26. 
Wheat : 

analysis of wheat flour, 113. 

composition of, 114. 

directions for cooking, 79. 

examination of wheat grain, 115. 

food value of, 114. 

harvesting wheat, 81. 

king of cereals, 73, 80. 

shredded wheat gruel, recipe for, 
301. 

spring and winter wheat, 81, 118. 

study of, 80, 113. 
Whey, 93, 95. 

Whipped cream, recipe for, 99. 
White bread : 

comparison with other foods, 135. 

making, 122. 
Whitefish, information about, 207. 
White fricassee of chicken, prepar- 
ing, 194. 



White of egg : 

composition of, 85. 

separating from yolk, 89. 
White potato, study of, 00. 
White sauce, recipe for, 67, 221, 243. 
Whiting, use of, for cleaning pur- 
poses, 34. 
Whole oatmeal, see Oatmeal. 
Whole-wheat : 

bread, making, 124. 

flour, production of, 118. 

gingersnaps, making (table), 2(58. 

muffins, recipe for, 112. 
Wine jelly, recipe for, 306. 
Winter and spring wheats, difference 

between, 81. 
Winter vegetables, care of, 240. 
Wood, cleaning, 34, 35, 37. 
Work of the body, 71. 
Working-men, diet for, 142. 

Yeast : 

action of, on sugar, 128. 

action in bread-raising, 128, 129. 

bacteria compared with, 281. 

composition of, 125. 

cultivated yeasts, 128. 

growth of, 126, 127. 

home-made yeast, 128. 

oxygen obtained by, 128. 

study of, 125. 
Yolk of eggs : 

composition of, 85. 

separating from white. 89. 

Zinc, cleaning, 47. 



NATURE STUDY 

IN 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 

By LUCY LANGDON WILLIAMS WILSON, Ph.D. 



H Manual for Ccacbcrs 

Illustrated. Cloth. i6mo. Price 90 cents, net 

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